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The drastic reduction of agrobiodiversity has induced all countries in the world to implement numerous initiatives to safeguard genetic resources. The biodiversity issue is also one of the priority objectives of the global action plan for the conservation and sustainable use of FAO's cytogenetic resources and of the International Treaty on Plant Genetic Resources for Food and Agriculture. In Italy, the primary competence on genetic resources of agricultural interest is entrusted to the Ministry of Agricultural. In 2004, the Ministry entrusted the coordination of the RGV/FAO Project to CREA. The main objectives of the project, in addition to the inventory of accessions present in the collections of the structures involved, are their morphological, agronomic and molecular characterization and the productive enhancement with particular reference to the autochthonous varieties at risk of extinction. The project in question includes the activities of recovery and characterization of the viticultural germplasm illustrated in the present work. The 12 vines described here, like others yet to be rediscovered, are strongly linked to small winegrowers and indissolubly characterial of a territory in Campania Region that from the socio-cultural (rather fragmented agricultural system) and environmental orography point of view, like the national one, is very diversified.

Common walnut (Juglans regia L) is an economically important species cultivated worldwide for its high-quality wood and nuts. It is generally accepted that after the last glaciation J. regia survived and grew in almost completely isolated stands in Asia, and that ancient humans dispersed walnuts across Asia and into new habitats via trade and cultural expansion. The history of walnut in Europe is a matter of debate, however. In this study, we estimated the genetic diversity and structure of 91 Eurasian walnut populations using 14 neutral microsatellites. By integrating fossil pollen, cultural, and historical data with population genetics, and approximate Bayesian analysis, we reconstructed the demographic history of walnut and its routes of dispersal across Europe. The genetic data confirmed the presence of walnut in glacial refugia in the Balkans and western Europe. We conclude that human-mediated admixture between Anatolian and Balkan walnut germplasm started in the Early Bronze Age, and between western Europe and the Balkans in eastern Europe during the Roman Empire. A population size expansion and subsequent decline in northeastern and western Europe was detected in the last five centuries. The actual distribution of walnut in Europe resulted from the combined effects of expansion/contraction from multiple refugia after the Last Glacial Maximum and its human exploitation over the last 5,000 years.

Common walnut (Juglans regia L) is an economically important species cultivated worldwide for its wood and nuts. It is generally accepted that J. regia survived and grew spontaneously in almost completely isolated stands in its Asian native range after the Last Glacial Maximum. Despite its natural geographic isolation, J. regia evolved over many centuries under the influence of human management and exploitation. We evaluated the hypothesis that the current distribution of natural genetic resources of common walnut in Asia is, at least in part, the product of ancient anthropogenic dispersal, human cultural interactions, and afforestation. Genetic analysis combined with ethno-linguistic and historical data indicated that ancient trade routes such as the Persian Royal Road and Silk Road enabled long-distance dispersal of J. regia from Iran and Trans-Caucasus to Central Asia, and from Western to Eastern China. Ancient commerce also disrupted the local spatial genetic structure of autochthonous walnut populations between Tashkent and Samarkand (Central-Eastern Uzbekistan), where the northern and central routes of the Northern Silk Road converged. A significant association between ancient language phyla and the genetic structure of walnut populations is reported even after adjustment for geographic distances that could have affected both walnut gene flow and human commerce over the centuries. Beyond the economic importance of common walnut, our study delineates an alternative approach for understanding how the genetic resources of long-lived perennial tree species may be affected by the interaction of geography and human history.