The Muscats: A molecular analysis of synonyms, homonyms and genetic relationships within a large family of grapevine cultivars

The Muscats are a large, wide-spread family of grapevines, having in common besides the name the typical Muscat flavour. A huge number of synonyms and homonyms makes it difficult to identify them. Sixty-four accessions were a nalysed in the present work; they are representatives of the huge variabili ty of this family as far as morphological aspects, berry colour and size, t ime of ripening and aptitude for wine and/or table grape production are con sidered. An analysis was performed at two isozymes and 25 microsatellite lo ci. The 64 accessions were reduced to 20, which were easily distinguishable from each other at the molecular level by as few as two microsatellite loc i, The remaining 44 were found to be synonyms. Three mutants with red and p ink coloured berries were identified in the Moscato bianco group. Moscato n ero encompasses at least two, Moscato rosa three different varieties. It se ems that only two of the analysed Muscats are the main progenitors of the M uscat family: Moscato bianco and Muscat of Alexandria, which in turn are jo ined by a direct parent-offspring link. We were unable to discriminate biot ypes belonging to the same cultivar by microsatellite markers.