Conservazione e valorizzazione del germoplasma viticolo toscano

The Italian grapevine germplasm has been meet over the last century to a substantial erosion, as a result of the concentration of the most favourable areas of viticulture and also the widespread trend towards use of a limited number of varieties for the production of wines with a designation of origin, as provided by its regulations. This process has also affected the Tuscany, a region particularly rich in germplasm , where a series of protection projects were initiated in several wine-growing areas, which led to the inclusion in the Regional Register of Indigenous Genetic Resources (LR 64/04) of 127 118 of them varieties in danger of extinction. With our Department's activity in the provinces of Massa-Carrara, Lucca, Pisa, Livorno, Grosseto and Siena have been identified and cataloged a large number of accessions (over 800), most of which were collected in special collections made in the areas of recovery. Some of them are still undergoing into genetic characterization, with the aim of clarifying cases of synonymy and homonymy, often frequent in the local gene pool. In addition, appropriate studies morphological, phenological and technological are carried out in order to assess the possibility of reintroducing in cultivation the most interesting local varieties, that according to the existing legislation must be primarily enrolled into the National Register of Grapevine Varieties. To manage this information has been designed and implemented a "Growing Universal Database" (http://www.vitisdb.it) which is operated by the "Vitis Database Working Group" composed by 23 research institutes in viticulture and enology currently operating in Italy, using a Scientific Committee. The key features of Italian Wine Database are as follows: 1. registered users can manage their own data; 2. There are three different levels of display: private (only for submitters), medium (for all submitter), public (for all users); 3. The system permits a normalization procedure of microsatellites, using specific reference varieties; 4. Each grape variety is characterized by "profile microsatellite" supplemented by historical information, regions, ampelometric, (OIV 2009), production, cropping, phenological, qualitative and technological, including any polyphenols and aroma profiles; 5. is it possible to implement the search options for grape or other parameters. The Growing Database of Italian researchers represents a useful working tool for the cataloguing of vines and for the exchange of information, moreover, when fully implemented, can also be a source of free consultation to all users.