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We elucidate grapevine evolution and domestication histories with 3525 cultivated and wild accessions worldwide. In the Pleistocene, harsh climate drove the separation of wild grape ecotypes caused by continuous habitat fragmentation. Then, domestication occurred concurrently about 11,000 years ago in Western Asia and the Caucasus to yield table and wine grapevines. The Western Asia domesticates dispersed into Europe with early farmers, introgressed with ancient wild western ecotypes, and subsequently diversified along human migration trails into muscat and unique western wine grape ancestries by the late Neolithic. Analyses of domestication traits also reveal new insights into selection for berry palatability, hermaphroditism, muscat flavor, and berry skin color. These data demonstrate the role of the grapevines in the early inception of agriculture across Eurasia.

The horizontal genetic transfer (HGT) of antibiotic resistance genes (ARGs) mediated by species-specific bacteriophages contributes to the emergence of antibiotic-resistant strains in natural populations of human and animal bacterial pathogens posing a significant threat to global public health. However, it is unclear and needs to be determined whether polyvalent bacteriophages play any role in the intergeneric transmission of ARGs. In this study, we examined the genome sequences of 2239 bacteriophages from different sources for the presence of ARGs. The identified ARG-carrying bacteriophages were then analyzed by PHACTS, PHAST, and HostPhinder programs to determine their lifestyles, genes coding for bacterial cell lysis, recombinases, and a spectrum of their potential host species, respectively. We employed the SplitsTree, RDP4 and SimPlot software packages in recombination tests to identify HGT events of ARGs between these bacteriophages and bacteria. In our analyses, some ARG-carrying bacteriophages exhibited temperate and/or polyvalent patterns. The bootstrap values (97–100) for the SplitsTree-generated parallelograms, fit values (97–100) for splits networks, Phi P values (< 10−17 to 3.9 × 10−16), RDP4 P values (≤ 7.8 × 10−03), and the SimPlot results, provided strong statistical evidence for the phage transduction events of blaCTX-M, mel, and tetM loci on inter-species level. These events involved several host species such as Escherichia coli, Salmonella enterica, Shigella sonnei, Streptococcus pneumoniae and Bacillus coagulans. HGT of mel loci between Erysipelothrix and Streptococcus phages were also detected. These results firmly suggest that certain bacteriophages possibly with temperate properties induce the intergeneric dissemination of blaCTX-M, mel and tetM in the above species.

In 2014, the National Wine Agency of the Republic of Georgia initiated a three-year "Research Project for the study of Georgian Grapes and Wine Culture. Through collaborative research by Georgian and foreign institutions and researchers, the project aims to: stimulate research of Georgian viticulture and viniculture, through the lens of the country with the earliest tradition of grape domestication and winemaking; and to reconstruct the continuous development of viticulture and wine culture through time. The project advances the study of grape and wine culture by utilizing a multidisciplinary approach, including: archaeology, history, ethnography, molecular genetics, biomolecular archaeology, palaeobotany, ampelography, enology, climatology and other scientific fields. These studies are diachronic in their approach, beginning with the oldest Neolithic civilizations, to present day, creating a holistic understanding of the continuity and complexity of Georgian Wine Culture to help popularize Georgian Wine throughout the global wine market.

INTRODUCTION – Common limits for phenotyping are costs in terms of equipment, specialized researchers, and time. Moreover, phenotyping requires specific methods in relation to the studied traits, and each method is generally designed to highlight very specific characteristics of the singular trait. Thus, the obtained results are not easily comparable between different institutions. However the data sharing is clearly the most powerful approach to limit the costs and efforts optimizing the obtained results in term of number of studied accessions. It should be stressed that funds are another great limit in research, especially in East countries, where the most interesting cultivar variability is preserved. 28 AIMS AND SCOPES – The main purpose of this work is the establishment of a phenotyping network able to produce comparable data among the Pan-European grapevine collections. MATERIALS AND METHODS – Two protocols were proposed: one for phenology and, the other, for enocarpological traits. Data were recorded in two consecutive vintages: 2012 and 2013. Concerning phenology, the extended BBCH scale (universal and flexible) was adapted to our objects by moving it into a chrono- phenological scale. Then, a cubic curve was selected for modelling the phenological courses. Thus, computing for each accession specific coefficients, it was possible to obtain the relative phenograms. Considering the different site climatic conditions, it was possible to spatialize the results, obtaining reference phenological maps. Concerning eno- carpological traits, the attention was focused on characteristics with a clear impact on the production quality, such as berry morphology (weight, diameters, number of seeds …) and composition (sugar, titratable acidity, anthocyanin and phenolic contents …). The protocol was organized to concatenate the data acquisition, with the objective to generate new derived variables. The methods were selected to be easily reproduced in all the involved collections, without the necessity of expensive facilities. RESULTS AND DISCUSSIONS – The first year of dataset was used to evaluate the methods. Two publications are already available confirming the protocols quality. Concerning phenology, both the variability between accessions grown into the same collection and the phenological shifts between the reference varieties cultivated in different areas were highlighted by the protocol. Matching climatic and phenological information of reference cultivars, phenophases maps were obtained. The performances obtained by the eno-carpological protocol were satisfactory both in a global point of view and in a singular collection evaluation. The project obtained an impressive participation, considering the volunteer contribution without any material funding to cover the work costs. Twenty-four institutions collaborate to the data collection. 1724 accessions were evaluated: 931 (583 in 2012 and 348 in 2013) for phenology and 793 (424 in 2012 and 369 in 2013) for eno-carpological descriptions. CONCLUSIONS AND POSSIBLE APPLICATIONS – The protocol sharing allows the data comparison among different grapevine collections. The possible future application for this dataset could be related to scientific studies of genetic associations. Moreover, the improved knowledge of minor and neglected cultivars could have a direct impact on the industrial production, giving information concerning new varieties for future introduction in viticultural areas.

Georgian grapevine germplasm, which has formed for thousands of years, includes white, black, red, pink and grey 525 Vitis vinifera cultivars. In 2009–2014 up to 440 local grapevine varieties Vitis vinifera sativa has been restored. These varieties are cultivated in the LEPL Agriculture Scientific-Research Center grapevine collection GEO 038, Mtskheta Munisipal, village Jighaura, at an altitude 550 m. There are retrieved and recorded in the collection up to 60 forms of Vitis vinifera silvestris. In order to study biological and technological characteristics of Georgian grapevine, in 2012–2014 were investigated 50 Georgian widely cultivated white and colored wine and table grapes varieties, in the seven viticulture regions of Georgia. Description of grapevine varieties implemented through the descriptors for grapevine (IPGRI OIV). Botanical, biological-technological, qualitative and quantitative marks are characterized and evaluated. Investigation conducted during the biologic development phases were studied for chemical and eno-carpological characteristics.

Aims: The chloroplast DNA sequence of eight Georgian grape cultivars (Rkatsiteli, Saperavi, Meskhuri Mtsvane, Chkhaveri, Aladasturi, Krakhuna, Tsitska, Tsolikouri) and three French cultivars (Chardonnay, Gouais Blanc, Chasselas), belonging to four different haplogroups (AAA, ATT, ATA, GTA), was determined by Illumina resequencing of genomic DNA. The chloroplast DNA sequence of the Maxxa cultivar was used as reference.Methods and results: The comparison of sequenced chloroplast DNA gave 100 % identity to Chardonnay and Gouais Blanc, differing from Meskhuri Mtsvane by two insertions/deletions (indels) (all ATA haplogroup). The difference between Chasselas and Saperavi was a single insertion (both ATT haplogroup), while Maxxa, Chkhaveri, Aladasturi, Krakhuna, Tsitska and Tsolikouri were all identical (all members of the GTA haplogroup). Forty-seven identical single nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs) were detected in the AAA, ATA and ATT haplogroups in comparison to the reference DNA. Additionally, 18 SNPs were detected for the ATT haplogroup, 4 for AAA, 6 for ATA and 11 for both AAA and ATA. The phylogenetic results show that the ATT, AAA and ATA haplogroups are more closely related to each other than to the GTA haplogroup.Conclusion: In the sequencing data of grape genomic DNA at the coverage (read depth) of chromosomal DNA 30-40, the coverage of chloroplast DNA reaches several thousand reads per bp due to the high number of chloroplast DNA copies in genomic DNA, much higher than necessary for resequencing. Based on these data, a new methodology of simultaneous resequencing of large number of chloroplast DNA was developed without preliminary chloroplast isolation or chloroplast enrichment.Significance and impact of the study: This method has great potential for expanding both phylogenetic and population genetic information on the evolution of domesticated crops.