Scientific Name	Vitis vinifera
Common Name	Vitis vinifera subsp. vinifera;
Taxonomy ID	29760
Lineage	cellular organisms > Viridiplantae > Streptophyta > Streptophytina > Embryophyta > Tracheophyta > Euphyllophyta > Spermatophyta > Magnoliophyta > Mesangiospermae > eudicotyledons > Gunneridae > Pentapetalae > rosids > rosids incertae sedis > Vitales > Vitaceae > Vitis
External Links	NCBI; EBI; JGI; PLAZA; Specialized Database
Representative Assembly	12X	GCA_000003745.2	DNA GFF RNA Protein

Description:

Vitis vinifera (common grape vine) is a species of Vitis and the most cultivated and economically important grape species native to the Mediterranean region, central Europe, and southwestern Asia, from Morocco and Portugal north to southern Germany and east to northern Iran. Grapes are not only consumed fresh but processed in making juice and wine. There are currently between 5,000 and 10,000 varieties of Vitis vinifera grapes though only a few are of commercial significance for wine and table grape production. Domesticated vines have hermaphrodite flowers, pollination is required for fruit to develop. The grape is eaten fresh, processed to make wine or juice, or dried to produce raisins. Cultivars of Vitis vinifera form the basis of the majority of wines produced around the world. All of the familiar wine varieties belong to Vitis vinifera, which is cultivated on every continent except for Antarctica, and in all the major wine regions of the world. Though new cultivars of grapes have been developed over last few decades, their introduction into the market has been difficult. An existing cultivar can also be manipulated for a desirable trait by genetic manipulation, if gene information is available.

V. vinifera is a diploid plant with 2n = 38 chromosomes. It has a small genome of about 500 Mb which makes genome analysis feasible in grapes. There are two grape genomic sequencing endeavors. For one, the Instituto Agriario San Michele all'Adige has hired Myriad Genetics to perform WGS sequencing and deposited the contigs of a heterozygotic cultivar of the Pinot Noir grape in the International Nucleotide Sequence Database Collaboration. This is 7X coverage with the 454 technology used to generate 4X coverage of short reads for finishing. The other endeavor to determine the grape genome sequence is a multinational collaborative project on grapevine research with an aim to understand the grape biology, viticulture and enology. The multinational endeavor has decided to determine the sequence of Pinot Noir PN40024, a homozygotic cultivar at 12X coverage.