92 1. Introduction The spread of grapevine varieties through different countries over time has produced many of cases of syn- onymy that now need clarification. Correct identification is very important in order to gain more precise knowledge of the varietal assortment and to better manage grapevine catalogues and germplasm repositories. The Italian Catalogue of Grapevine Varieties is one of the most copious in the world. Nonetheless, it contains various duplicates or triplicates, such as ‘Alicante’/‘Cannonao’/‘Tocai rosso’, ‘Vermentino’/ ‘Pigato’/‘Favorita’, ‘Biancame’/‘Trebbiano toscano’, ‘Albarola’/‘Bianchetta genovese’. Also ‘Verdicchio’, one of the most prized white grape varieties of the Marche region (central Italy) and regis- tered in the Italian Catalogue with code no. 254, has an officially recognized duplicate, ‘Trebbiano di Soave’ (code no. 239), the name used in several provinces of the Veneto region (north-eastern Italy). Other synonyms in the same region are ‘Trebbiano di Lugana’ and ‘Turbiana’. In the Lazio region (central Italy) it is known as ‘Trebbiano verde’ (Bruni, 1962). To our knowledge, the first citation of ‘Verdicchio’ was by the botanist Costanzo Felici as far back as 1569 (in Arbizzoni, 1986). ‘Verdello’ is considered a minor grapevine variety of the Umbria region (central Italy). It is registered in the Italian Catalogue with code no. 253 and is used for the DOC wines of Orvieto, Colli Amerini, Colli del Trasimeno and Torgiano. Scalabrelli and Grasselli (1988) report that ‘Verdello’ is also cultivated in the south of Tuscany under the synonym ‘Duropersico’, mainly in the territory of Piti- gliano DOC, where it has been present for at least two cen- turies and contributes to the wine of the same name. The two authors refer that in the same territory a variety known as ‘Uva Angiola’ is also present; they generically link it to the Trebbiano group, but this variety more specifically resembles to those analyzed in the present study. Furthermore, in the most northern part of Tuscany, a variety morphologically similar to ‘Verdicchio’ has been grown for a long time. It is called ‘Verduschia’ (Soderini, 1600; Acerbi, 1825), ‘Verdella’ or ‘Verdarella’, depending on the cultivation area. The diffusion of this variety is lim- ited to the small Lunigiana territory (provinces of La Spe- zia and Massa Carrara) and to a few residual specimens in old vineyards (Scalabrelli and Dodi, 1998). ‘Verduschia’ falls into the category of minor grapevine varieties on the ‘Verdello’, ‘Verdicchio’ and ‘Verduschia’: an example of integrated multidisciplinary study to clarify grapevine cultivar identity M. Crespan*, A. Armanni**, G. Da Rold*, B. De Nardi*, M. Gardiman*, D. Migliaro*, S. Soli- go***, P. Storchi** * Consiglio per la ricerca e la sperimentazione in agricoltura, Centro di ricerca per la viticoltura, CRA-VIT, Viale XXVIII Aprile, 26, 31015 Conegliano (TV), Italy. ** Consiglio per la ricerca e la sperimentazione in agricoltura, Unità di ricerca per la viticoltura, CRA-VIC, Via Romea, 53, 52100 Arezzo, Italy. *** Centro Regionale per la Viticoltura, l’Enologia e la Grappa, CeRVEG, Veneto Agricoltura, Via Zamboni, 31015 Conegliano (TV), Italy. Key words: ampelography, ‘Duropersico’, SSR markers, ‘Trebbiano di Soave’, ‘Turbiana’, ‘Uva Angiola’. Abstract: ‘Verdello’, ‘Verdicchio’ and ‘Verduschia’ are registered in the official Italian Catalogue as three distinct grape- vine varieties. Twenty-five accessions of these cultivars, encompassing known or presumed synonyms, coming from CRA repositories and from vineyards where they are traditionally cultivated, have been genotyped with eleven SSR markers. For morphological comparison, one accession for each variety has been described with 57 characters of OIV 2009 list; phenological and yield traits have also been recorded. In addition, the phenotypic comparison has been extended to the literature descriptions. The same DNA profile has been obtained for all 25 accessions; moreover, present and historical ampelographic data showed a very high similarity. All this information leads to the conclusion that these three varieties are, in fact, the same cultivar. Adv. Hort. Sci., 2012 26(2): 92-99 Received for publication 16 February 2012. Accepted for publication 31 May 2012. 93 verge of extinction; although registered in the Italian Cata- logue since 1971 with code no. 297, it does not seem to have been propagated. DNA genotyping allowed us to hypothesise an unrec- ognized synonymy among ‘Verdicchio’, ‘Verdello’ and ‘Verduschia’. In fact, based on previous results obtained with molecular analysis of some accessions of ‘Verdello’, interesting for the clonal selection of materials from Lazio, we found that they had the same profile of the ‘Verdicchio’ accession held in the Centro di ricerca per la viticoltura (CRA-VIT) repository. Given the interest aroused by this preliminary information, we extended the molecular com- parison to numerous accessions of ‘Verdicchio’, ‘Verdello’ and their synonyms, as well as to ‘Verduschia’, the Tus- can variety morphologically similar to ‘Verdicchio’. The samples for genotypic comparison were singled out both in the CRA-VIT repositories and in the cultivation areas of each variety, for a total of 25 accessions, including a com- mercial clone of ‘Verdello’ (clone VCR1) and another of ‘Verdicchio bianco’ (clone R2). This study was integrated with morphological comparison: one accession for each variety was characterized with 57 descriptors of the OIV 2009 list; phenological and yield traits were also recorded. In addition, ampelographic comparison was extended to the literature descriptions of these three varieties: most of the traits reported in literature were retrieved and harmo- nized according to the OIV 2009 descriptors list used for examining the actual materials. 2. Materials and Methods Plant material Twenty-five accessions were sampled, coming from CRA-VIT repositories in Spresiano (TV) and Susegana (TV), from Unità di ricerca per la viticoltura (CRA-VIC) repositories in Arezzo, from the Veneto Agricoltura col- lection and from vineyards in Veneto, Tuscany, Umbria, Marche and Lazio regions (Table 1). Ampelographic, phenological and yield data comparison Three accessions were described: one ‘Verdello’ of Um- brian origin (accession no. 4 in Table 1) and one ‘Verdus- chia’ (no. 15 in Table 1) coming from Lunigiana (province of Massa Carrara), both held in the CRA-VIC germplasm collection in Arezzo, and one ‘Verdicchio’ coming from Marche (no. 25 in Table 1), held at the Azienda Poggio Gagliardo in Montescudaio (Pisa, Italy). Morphological descriptions of the three varieties were performed accord- ing to 57 descriptors (OIV, 2009); phyllometric analyses were also carried out on samples of 20 leaves per cultivar using SuperAmpelo software (Soldavini et al., 2009). The comparison was widened to the ‘Verdello’, ‘Ver- dicchio’ and ‘Verduschia’ descriptions given in the litera- ture: in particular, the Umbrian ‘Verdello’ was described by Cartechini and Moretti (1989), the ‘Verdicchio’ from Marche by Bruni (1962) and the Tuscan ‘Verduschia’ by Breviglieri and Casini (1965). To facilitate the compari- son, all these descriptions were standardized according to the OIV 2009 descriptor list. DNA extraction Total genomic DNA was extracted from young leaves of the 25 accessions using NucleoSpin® 8 Plant kit (MA- CHEREY-NAGEL GmbH, Düren, Germany) automated on the Microlab® STAR liquid handling robot according to the MACHEREY-NAGEL NucleoSpin® 8 Plant proto- col. DNA concentration and quality were assessed with a spectrophotometer and by 1% agarose gel electrophoresis. DNA samples were then diluted to 10 ng/µl prior to am- plification. SSR analysis SSR analysis was performed in order to verify the vari- etal identity of the studied accessions. Eleven microsatel- lite loci were analyzed: the six core loci selected within Genres 081 European Project (VVS2, VVMD5, VVMD7, VVMD27, VrZAG62 and VrZAG79) (This et al., 2004); VVMD28 (Bowers et al., 1999); ISV2 (VMC6e1), ISV3 (VMC6f1) and ISV4 (VMC6g1) (Crespan, 2003); VMCNG4b9 (Welter et al., 2007). A multiplex PCR mixture was prepared, amplifying simultaneously all 11 SSR loci. The reaction mixture con- sisted of: 1 X PCR buffer (Promega; Pharmacia Biotech), 200 µM of each dNTPs, 1 U of Taq DNA polymerase (Promega; Pharmacia Biotech), 2.0 mM MgCl 2 and the primer concentrations ranged between 0.09 µM and 0.40 µM, according to signal  intensity; the forward primers were labelled with 6-FAM, VIC, PET or NED fluorescent Table 1 - List of the analysed accessions ID Accession name Provenance 1 Verdicchio CRA-VIT repository 2 Verdello CRA-VIT repository 3 Verdello clone VCR1 Vivai Cooperativi of Rauscedo (Pordenone) - Italy 4 Verdello covio 6 Orvieto (Terni) - Italy 5 Verdello sugano Orvieto (Terni) - Italy 6 Verdello fausto 1 Porano (Terni) - Italy 7 Verdello 553 Ercolani farm, Capodimonte (Viterbo) - Italy 8 Verdello 550 Ercolani farm, Capodimonte (Viterbo) - Italy 9 Verdello 549 Ercolani farm, Capodimonte (Viterbo) - Italy 10 Verdello 514 Catercia farm, Capodimonte (Viterbo) - Italy 11 Verdello 405 Bianchi farm, Bagnoreggio (Viterbo) - Italy 12 Verdello 146 ar Pitigliano (Grosseto) - Italy 13 Verdello Lazio 14 Verdello CRA-VIT repository 15 Verduschia Aulla (Massa Carrara) - Italy 16 Verdella Aulla (Massa Carrara) - Italy 17 Verdicchio carr 10 Terranuova Bracciolini (Arezzo) - Italy 18 Turbiana Vicenza - Italy 19 Trebbiano verde Viterbo - Italy 20 Trebbiano di Soave CRA-VIT repository 21 Trebbiano di Soave CRA-VIT repository 22 Trebbiano di Lugana Veneto 23 Duropersico 165 ar Pitigliano (Grosseto) - Italy 24 Uva angiola CRA-VIT repository 25 Verdicchio clone R2 Marche 94 dyes; the final volume was 12.5 µl. PCR was carried out in GeneAMP 9700 (Applied Biosystems) with the follow- ing thermal profile: 2 min at 94°C, followed by 30 cycles at 94°C for 45 sec, 55°C for 1 min and 30 sec, 72°C for 1 min and a final step at 72°C for 30 min. PCR products (1 µl) were added to 0.1 µl LIZ 500 size standard and 8.9 µl Hi-Di formamide (Applied Biosys- tems) and separated by capillary electrophoresis using an ABI Prism 3110xl DNA analyzer (Applied Biosystems) and POP-7 polymer (Applied Biosystems). After data collection, genotyping analysis was performed with ABI Prism® GeneMapperTM software version 3.0. 3. Results The results of the ampelographic comparison between ‘Verdello’, ‘Verdicchio’ and ‘Verduschia’ are reported in Table 2. The descriptions from the present study show that the three grapevine varieties share 47 out of 57 traits. Ten diverge (in bold in Table 2): in particular, ‘Verdello’ dif- fers from ‘Verdicchio’ and ‘Verduschia’ by having a slight bronze tinge on the young leaf and the mature leaf with less pronounced lower lobes and shorter petiole compared to the length of the middle vein. ‘Verdicchio’ showed a larger average size of the mature leaf, a longer middle vein N1 and a greater density of prostrate hairs on the lower side of the blade (descriptor no. 84), as well as longer internodes (no. 353). Finally, three morphological traits differ in ‘Ver- duschia’ with respect to ‘Verdello’ and ‘Verdicchio’: the dorsal side of the shoot is green (OIV codes 007 and 009) and berry size is smaller. Therefore, comparison of our de- scriptions shows a substantial analogy among these variet- ies, which share 82% of the expression levels, with very minor discrepancies. Their similarity is also confirmed by the elaboration of the mature leaf measurements with Su- perAmpelo software: the cluster analysis performed by the program shows that the degree of similarity is even higher and above 93% (Fig. 1). Fig. 1 - Cluster analysis of ‘Verdello’, ‘Verdicchio’ and ‘Verduschia’ phyllometric data elaborated with SuperAmpelo software. Per- centage of similarity values are indicated. Table 2 - List of ampelographic traits of the varieties ‘Verdello’, ‘Verdicchio’ and ‘Verduschia’. There are two types of comparisons: i) among current descriptions: discordant characters observed in the present study are written in bold; ii) among descriptions from other authors: slightly discordant traits inferred from the literature are underlined; clearly discordant characters are underlined in italics. An asterisk indicates the characters defined by the software SuperAmpelo. nr: not recorded character. Organ OIV Code 2009 Description Verdello Verdicchio Verduschia present study Cartechini and Moretti, 1989 present study Bruni, 1962 present study Breviglieri and Casini, 1965 sh oo t 002 young shoot: distribution of anthocyanin coloration on prostrate hairs of the shoot tip absent absent absent absent absent piping 003 young shoot: intensity of anthocyanin coloration on prostrate hairs of the shoot tip none or very low none or very low none or very low none or very low none or very low low 004 young shoot: density of pros- trate hairs on the shoot tip medium very high medium very high medium medium or very high 006 attitude semi-erect semi-erect semi-erect semi-erect semi-erect semi-erect 007 colour of the dorsal side of internodes green and red green and red green and red green and red green green 008 colour of the ventral side of internodes green and red green and red green and red green and red green and red green and red 009 colour of the dorsal side of nodes green and red green and red green and red green and red green green 010 colour of the ventral side of nodes green and red or red green green and red or red green and red green and red green and red 013 density of prostrate hairs on nodes low none or very low low none or very low low low 015_2 intensity of anthocyanin coloration on the bud scales weak weak weak nr weak nr 016 number of consecutive tendrils 2 or less 2 or less 2 or less 2 or less 2 or less 2 or less 95 Organ OIV Code 2009 Description Verdello Verdicchio Verduschia present study Cartechini and Moretti, 1989 present study Bruni, 1962 present study Breviglieri and Casini, 1965 yo un g le af 051 colour of upper side of blade (4th leaf) green / bronze / yellow green green / yellow green / bronze green / yellow green 053 density of prostrate hairs be- tween main veins on lower side of blade (4th leaf) high very high high very high high very high 055 density of prostrate hairs on main veins on lower side of blade (4th leaf) low low low nr low nr m at ur e le af 065 size of blade medium-small* medium medium* medium medium-small* medium-small 067 shape of blade wedge-shaped or pentagonal* circular wedge-shaped or pentagonal* circular or pen- tagonal wedge-shaped or pentagonal* pentagonal 068 number of lobes five or three five five five or three five five or three 069 colour of the upper side of the blade between medium green and dark green medium green between medium green and dark green between medium green and dark green between medium green and dark green dark green 070 area of anthocyanin col- oration of main veins on upper side of blade absent absent absent absent absent absent 071 area of anthocyanin col- oration of main veins on lower side of blade absent absent absent absent absent absent 073 undulation of blade between main or lateral veins present present present present present present 074 profile of blade in cross section involute, V-shaped or twisted V-shaped involute, V- shaped or twisted flat or twisted involute, V- shaped or twisted flat or twisted 075 blistering of upper side of blade medium weak medium medium medium nr 076 shape of teeth mixture between straight and convex sides one side concave, one side convex mixture between straight and convex sides mixture between straight and convex sides mixture between straight and convex sides both sides convex 078 length of teeth compared with their width short short short short short short 079 degree of opening/overlap- ping petiole sinus overlapped strongly over- lapped overlapped closed or over- lapped overlapped overlapped 084 density of prostrate hairs between main veins on lower side of blade medium medium high very high medium very high 086 density of prostrate hairs on main veins on lower side of blade low low low high low nr 090 density of prostrate hairs on petiole low none or very low low none or very low low none or very low 093 length of petiole compared to length of middle vein (N1) shorter than N1 longer than N1 equal to N1 nr equal to N1 nr 601 length of vein N1 short* nr medium* nr short* nr 602 length of vein N2 medium* nr medium* nr medium* nr 603 length of vein N3 medium* nr medium* nr medium* nr 604 length of vein N4 very long* nr very long* nr very long* nr w oo dy sh oo t 101 cross section circular or elliptic circular circular or elliptic circular or elliptic circular or elliptic circular or el- liptic 103 main colour brownish brownish brownish between brown- ish and grey brownish brownish in fl or es ce nc e 151 flower: sexual organs hermaphrodite hermaphrodite hermaphrodite hermaphrodite hermaphrodite hermaphrodite 152 insertion of 1st inflores- cence 3rd and 4th node 3rd and 4th node 3rd and 4th node 3rd and 4th node 3rd and 4th node 3rd and 4th node 153 number of inflorescences per shoot 1.1 to 2 1.1 to 2 1.1 to 2 1.1 to 2 1.1 to 2 1.1 to 2 96 Organ OIV Code 2009 Description Verdello Verdicchio Verduschia present study Cartechini and Moretti, 1989 present study Bruni, 1962 present study Breviglieri and Casini, 1965 bu nc h 202 length medium-long medium medium-long medium-long medium-long long 204 density dense very dense dense dense or medium dense medium 206 length of peduncle short very short short medium short short 208 shape conical / funnel shaped / cylindrical conical conical / funnel shaped / cylindri- cal conical or cylin- drical-conical conical / funnel shaped / cylindri- cal conical 209 number of wings of the primary bunch 1-2/3-4 with wings 1-2/3-4 wings with wings 1-2/3-4 with wings be rr y 220 length medium medium medium medium between me- dium and short short 222 uniformity of size uniform uniform uniform uniform uniform uniform 223 shape globose globose globose globose globose globose 225 colour of skin yellow yellow yellow yellow yellow yellow 227 bloom medium medium medium medium medium medium 228 thickness of skin thin thick thin thin thin thick 229 hilum visible visible visible visible visible visible 241 formation of seeds complete complete complete complete complete complete ve ge ta tio n 306 autumn coloration of leaves yellow yellow yellow yellow yellow yellow 351 vigour of shoot growth medium-strong medium medium-strong medium-strong medium-strong medium-strong 352 growth of lateral shoots weak weak weak medium weak weak 353 length of internodes medium long long medium-long medium medium 354 diameter of internodes medium small medium medium medium medium With regard to the descriptions from the literature, most of the 57 OIV descriptors we used were retrieved. Only the measurements from code 601 to 604 relative to the ma- ture leaf, three traits of ‘Verdicchio’ and five of ‘Verdus- chia’ were excluded (indicated as not recorded characters in Table 2) and so a total of 50 descriptors for ‘Verdello’ and ‘Verdicchio’ and 48 for ‘Verduschia’ were taken into consideration. As expected, the literature data comparison highlighted greater differences, given that the three de- scriptions were made by different authors. Twenty-eight descriptors, underlined in Table 2, showed slightly discor- dant expression levels, as they are limited to a single inter- val or with different coexisting or intermediate expression levels. These are mainly characters whose expression may be influenced by environmental factors like the exposure to the light or by cropping factors and vegetative vigour, in addition to the subjectivity of the observer. Other descrip- tors (7 out of 52), underlined in italics in Table 2, showed markedly different expression levels. Four of them regard the mature leaf and in particular the density of prostrate hairs on the lower side of the blade (no. 84 and 86) and the profile and shape of the teeth (no. 74 and 76); the other three regard the bunch and the berry (no. 204, bunch den- sity; no. 206, peduncle length; no. 228, thickness of skin). Comparing this last group of seven morphological features with the set of results from our field measurements, it ap- pears that our descriptions match better with those of ‘Ver- dicchio’ described by Bruni (1962); instead, fewer simi- larities are noted with the descriptions in the literature for ‘Verduschia’ and even fewer for ‘Verdello’. Lastly, the comparison of the phenological and yield data collected in the two environments [Arezzo and Mon- tescudaio (Pisa)] are reported in Table 3. The data obtained from the same references for ampelographic descriptions are also shown for comparison and ‘Trebbiano toscano’ is proposed as common reference variety to enhance data significance. ‘Verduschia’ differs by the longer vegetative cycle and the lower berry weight. Instead, there are no rel- evant differences between the other two varieties. Molecular analysis of the 25 accessions listed in Table 1 produced the same DNA profile, reported in Table 4 to- gether with ‘Sangiovese’, ‘Pinot noir’ and ‘Muscat blanc à petits grains’ profiles, proposed as reference varieties for easier data comparison. To our knowledge this is the first time that the synonymy with ‘Trebbiano verde’ from Lazio, ‘Duropersico’, ‘Verduschia’ or ‘Verdella’ and ‘Uva Angiola’ from Tuscany and ‘Turbiana’ from Veneto, is confirmed by molecular data. 97 Table 3 - Phenology and yield data for ‘Verdello’, ‘Verdicchio’ and ‘Verduschia’: average of 2007-2010 for the vineyard in Arezzo, average of 2004-2008 for the vineyard in Montescudaio (Pisa). The data from some reference ampelographic descriptions are also shown for com- parison. ‘Trebbiano toscano’ is proposed as common reference variety to enhance data significance ‘Verdello’ ‘Verdicchio’ ‘Verduschia’ ‘Trebbiano toscano’ Place of data col- lection Arezzo1 Orvieto (Terni)2 Montescudaio (Pisa)3 Iesi (Ancona)4 Arezzo1 Firenze5 Arezzo1 Montescu- daio (Pisa)3 Bud burst 13 April (medium) medium 7 April (me- dium) medium-late 12 April (medium) 10 - 20 April (medium) 16 April (medium) 7 April (me- dium) Flowering 3 June (me- dium - early) medium 2 June (medium -early) early 7 June (medium) 1 - 10 June (medium) 8 June (medium) 3 June (medium) Veraison 11 August (medium) medium 5 August (me- dium) medium 13 August (medium late) 21 - 31 Au- gust (late) 17 August (medium late) 6 August (medium) Ripening 25 Sep- tember (medium) late 20 September (medium) medium-late 27 September (late) 1 - 10 Octo- ber (late) 4 October (late) 28 September (late) Average weight of the bunch (g ± SD) 320±95 269 455±43 280 352±66 245 357±51 402±60 Average weight of the berry (g ± SD) 1.87±0.18 1.80 1.94 2.05 1.60±0.64 0.80 1.71±0.21 1.82±0.19 ° Brix (± SD) 22.0±1.2 22.3 21.4±0.6 20.0 20.6±0.7 21.0 18.9±1.2 21.1±0.8 Titratable acidity (g/l ± SD) 6.71±1.36 8.90 6.80±0.40 8.25 6.42± 0.75 6.97 7.32±0.48 5.29±0.62 1 CRA-VIC repository, Lon: 11°49’29’’ E, Lat: 43°28’30’’ N. 2 Data from Cartechini and Moretti (1989). Lon: 12° 12’ E, Lat: 42° 42’ N. 3 Poggio Gagliardo Farm, Lon: 10°32’53’’ E, Lat: 43°18’52’’ N. 4 Data from Bruni (1962), Lon: 13° 11’ E, Lat: 43° 38’ N. 5 Data from Breviglieri and Casini (1965), Lon: 11°19’21’’ E, Lat: 43°45’11’’ N. Table 4 - SSR profiles of ‘Verdicchio’/‘Verdello’/‘Verduschia’ and three cultivars proposed as reference to favour comparison with other databases SSR loci Verdicchio, Verdello and Verduschia Sangiovese Pinot noir Muscat blanc à petits grains VVS2 133 133 137 133 155 133 151 133 VVMD5 228 226 228 228 240 236 238 236 VVMD7 239 239 239 233 247 263 243 249 VVMD27 179 179 185 179 185 185 189 194 VVMD28 239 237 221 249 261 247 239 271 VrZAG62 195 193 187 185 195 195 193 195 VrZAG79 248 242 238 250 256 258 244 254 ISV2 (VMC6e1) 165 143 151 141 165 165 165 143 ISV3 (VMC6f1) 135 139 133 133 139 139 145 139 ISV4 (VMC6g1) 169 177 169 169 197 197 177 187 VMCNG4b9 164 158 158 158 166 168 162 166 98 4. Discussion and Conclusions The large number of accessions analyzed, most of which come from traditional cultivation areas, together with the results of the ampelographic comparisons, allow us to affirm that ‘Verdicchio’, ‘Verdello’ and ‘Verduschia’ represent a new group of synonyms. This discovery is im- portant because the three varieties are registered as distinct in the Italian Catalogue. This is further supported by the results of the molecular analysis on the commercial clone of ‘Verdello’ (clone VCR1), which showed to be identical to the other ‘Verdello’ accessions analyzed in this study. It emerges from present work that the extent of the cultivation area in Italy and the interest in ‘Verdicchio’/ ‘Verdello’/‘Verduschia’ are greater than previously sup- posed from the information available on the already known synonyms. According to the Italian census of Agriculture Data (ISTAT, 2004) the total area under ‘Verdicchio’, ‘Verdello’, ‘Verduschia’ and ‘Trebbiano di Soave’ culti- vation in Italy is about 6000 ha, mainly in Marche (53%) and Veneto (30%) and, to a much lesser extent, in Umbria (8.3%) and Lazio (1.6%). Cultivation is also authorized in Emilia Romagna, Tuscany, Abruzzo, Molise and even in Sardinia. The success with which this variety has been cultivated for centuries in central and north-eastern Italy is obvious; the broad and historic diversification of the de- nominations, even in very close areas, supports the old age of the variety and also the interest in the locally produced wines, with recognised quality. The synonymy ‘Verdicchio’/‘Verdello’/‘Verduschia’ is added to a growing number of redundancies found in the Italian Catalogue and highlights the value of molecu- lar analysis to facilitate rapid comparison among varieties. This tool has been very useful in revealing other, never previously suspected cases of synonymy, such as ‘Greco di Tufo’ and ‘Asprinio’ (Costantini et al., 2005), ‘Malvasia delle Lipari’ and ‘Malvasia di Sardegna’ (Crespan et al., 2006), or to definitively clarify long disputed synonymies, such as ‘Malvasia nera di Brindisi’ and ‘Malvasia nera di Lecce’ (Crespan et al., 2008; Gasparro et al., 2008). It is extremely difficult to hypothesize the centre of diffusion of ‘Verdicchio’/‘Verdello’/‘Verduschia’, also because the pedigree of this variety is unknown. One not scientifically supported hypothesis infers that this cultivar arrived in Marche from northern Italy in the second half of the 15th century, with colonies of farmers from Veneto and Lombardy, and from there it moved to Lazio, to finally turn up in Tuscany (Pollini, 2006). The discovery of this new group of synonyms has been greatly facilitated by the use of SSR markers, which sug- gest comparisons among varieties independently from preliminary ampelographic indications. Given the wealth of varieties registered in the Italian Catalogue, molecular analysis, associated with the building of a reliable and complete molecular database of reference, has been shown to be very useful to highlight redundancies. Ampelograph- ic comparison is indispensable to confirm the preliminary data acquired via molecular fingerprinting. Indeed, the definition of a cultivated variety is tied to the DUS crite- ria (Distinctness, Uniformity and Stability), since the so- matic mutants for agronomically important characters are legally registered as separate cultivars, as are mutants for berry colour or earliness of ripening. Lastly, genotyping represents a strategic tool in order to avoid the recording of duplicates in the future. Acknowledgements This research was financed by the Ministry of Agricul- tural, Food and Forestry Policies as part of the RGV-FAO and ASER-IDENTIVIT projects, and with funds from the regional agency ‘Veneto Agricoltura’. The authors thank Francesco Anaclerio (VCR) for providing the clone of ‘Verdello’ VCR1 and Marina Niero for the information on the clonal selection of ‘Verdello’ in the Lazio region. References ACERBI G., 1825 - Delle viti italiane. - Silvestri, Milano. ARBIZZONI G., 1986 - Costanzo Felici, Scritti naturalistici. Dell’insalata e piante che in qualunque modo vengono per cibo del’homo. - Quattroventi, Urbin, Italy, pp. 105. BOWERS J.E., DANGL G.S., MEREDITH C.P., 1999 - De- velopment and characterisation of additional microsat- ellite DNA markers for grape. - Am. J. Enol. Vitic., 50: 243-246. BREVIGLIERI N., CASINI E., 1965 - Verduschia. In: I prin- cipali vitigni da vino coltivati in Italia. - Vol. IV, Minis- tero dell’Agricoltura e delle Foreste, Rome, Italy. 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