A reliable analytical procedure to discover table grape DNA adulteration in industrial wines and musts

The aim of the research was to verify the applicability of microsatellite (SSR) markers in High Resolution Melting (HRM) analysis for the identification of table grape cultivars in white wine and musts. A panel of four cultivars, widespread in Apulia region, was used as reference for molecular fingerprinting and the PCR products were analyzed by HRM and capillary electrophoresis. High Resolution Melting analysis, here applied for the first time on a panel of fermented wines, has been proved to be the method of choice for the screening. Capillary electrophoresis, providing allele size, allowed a fine genotyping of musts and wines in comparison with reference cultivars. Merging the information of the two molecular analyses applied to industrial samples, we demonstrated the possibility to discover cases of must- and wine-adulterations with table grapes, and we propose our procedure in controlling food quality and origin certification.