Comparison of DNA methylation landscape between Czech and Armenian vineyards show their unique character and increased diversity

Grapevine is a worldwide crop and it is also subject to global trade in wine, berries and grape vine plants. Various countries, including the countries of the European Union, emphasize the role of product origin designation and suitable methods are sought, able to capture distinct origins. One of the biological matrices that can theoretically be driven by individual vineyards’ conditions represents DNA methylation. Despite this interesting hypothesis, there is a lack of respective information. The aim of this work is to examine whether DNA methylation can be used to relate a sample to a given vineyard and to access a relationship between a DNA methylation pattern and different geographical origin of analysed samples. For this purpose, DNA methylation landscapes of samples from completely different climatic conditions presented by the Czech Republic (Central Europe) and Armenia (Southern Caucasus) were compared. Results of the Methylation Sensitive Amplified Polymorphism method confirm uniqueness of DNA methylation landscape for individual vineyards. Factually, DNA methylation diversity within vineyards of Merlot and Pinot Noir cultivars represent only 16% and 14% of the overall diversity registered for individual cultivars. On the contrary, different geographical location of the Czech and Armenian vineyards was identified as the strongest factor affecting diversity in DNA methylation landscapes (79.9% and 70.7% for Merlot and Pinot Noir plants, respectively).