This article was accepted into the corpus but its outbound wikilinks were never NER-processed — typical at the deepest BFS hop or when the run's entity cap was reached. No expansion funnel to show.
| VIVC | |
|---|---|
| Name | VIVC |
| Formation | 1990 |
| Type | Database |
| Headquarters | Siebeldingen, Germany |
| Leader title | Curators |
| Leader name | Institute for Grapevine Breeding Geilweilerhof |
VIVC
The Vitis International Variety Catalogue (VIVC) is an authoritative international database documenting cultivated Vitis grapevine varieties, breeding lines, and synonyms. It aggregates ampelographic descriptions, varietal synonymy, passport data and bibliographic citations to support plant breeders, geneticists, nurseries and national collections. The catalogue bridges collections maintained by institutions such as the Institute for Grapevine Breeding Geilweilerhof, International Organisation of Vine and Wine, International Treaty on Plant Genetic Resources for Food and Agriculture stakeholders and regional repositories across France, Germany, Italy and beyond.
VIVC serves as a centralized reference for cultivated grapevine taxon names, cultivar histories and identity. It integrates inputs from the European Cooperative Programme for Plant Genetic Resources (ECPGR), the International Vitis Genetics and Breeding community, national ampelographic collections including INRAE, USDA ARS, CSIRO, the Agricultural Research Organization (Israel), and university programs like University of California, Davis, Università degli Studi di Torino and Università Cattolica del Sacro Cuore. The catalogue provides standardized identifiers that intersect with nomenclature efforts by bodies such as the International Code of Nomenclature for Cultivated Plants and complements genetic databases maintained by consortia including the European Vitis Database and the Grape Genome Database projects.
VIVC originated from collaborative efforts in late 20th-century ampelography and germplasm coordination motivated by post‑war European varietal loss and expanding international breeding programs. Early contributors included the Geilweilerhof breeding institute, Institut National de la Recherche Agronomique (INRA), Julius Kühn-Institut, and national repositories in Austria, Hungary, Spain and Portugal. The database evolved alongside molecular marker advances pioneered by groups at Institut National de la Recherche Agronomique (INRA), the Vine and Wine Research Institutes, and laboratories linked to the University of Adelaide and University of Bordeaux. Integration of microsatellite (SSR) profiles, ampelographic descriptors from OIV standards and passport data from genebanks shaped successive releases and online accessibility.
VIVC functions to disambiguate cultivar names, facilitate exchange of material among collections, support breeding program parentage verification and assist legal frameworks for plant variety protection. Users include plant breeders affiliated with ECPGR networks, molecular geneticists at EMBL-EBI collaborating on grape genomics, nurseries in Piedmont and Bordeaux regions, and curators at national collections such as NZPPS and National Clonal Germplasm Repository (USDA). The catalogue informs scholarly work published in journals like Theoretical and Applied Genetics, Vitis — Journal of Grapevine Research, American Journal of Enology and Viticulture, and supports conservation policy development referenced in meetings of the FAO and OECD.
The database architecture organizes entries by primary cultivar name, synonyms, origin, parentage and descriptors. Each record typically contains ampelographic traits following OIV descriptor lists, molecular marker profiles, photographic documentation, bibliographic citations to works by authors such as Pierre Galet, Guyot, and links to germplasm holders like Geilweilerhof and INRAE. The schema relates passport data fields used by genebank networks including EURISCO and integrates controlled vocabularies maintained by institutions like BGCI and taxonomic authorities represented in databases such as Plants of the World Online.
VIVC assigns unique identifiers to cultivars to reduce ambiguity among synonyms, homonyms and local names registered in national catalogues such as Catalogue of Varieties listings in France and varietal registries in Italy and Germany. Identification employs ampelographic comparison, SSR fingerprinting protocols standardized by research teams at University of California, Davis and parentage analysis methods used by groups at INRAE and Geilweilerhof. The system supports linkage to patent and plant breeders’ rights records administered by offices like the European Union Intellectual Property Office and the United States Patent and Trademark Office when applicable.
Data curation follows conventions promoted by international stakeholders including OIV, ECPGR and the International Treaty on Plant Genetic Resources for Food and Agriculture. Records integrate molecular marker data compatible with repositories such as the European Variation Archive and metadata fields interoperable with FAO/IPGRI genebank descriptors. Access is typically web‑based with search interfaces enabling queries by synonym, country of origin, parentage or SSR profile; contributions and updates come from partner institutions like Geilweilerhof, INRAE, USDA ARS and university research groups in Australia, South Africa and Chile.
By clarifying cultivar identity, VIVC aids varietal authentication for appellation systems in regions such as Bordeaux, Tuscany, Rheingau and La Mancha, supports breeding targets for disease resistance informed by research at John Innes Centre and AVRDC collaborations, and underpins molecular studies of traits examined by teams at Sanger Institute and Max Planck Institute for Plant Breeding Research. The catalogue facilitates traceability in nurseries, reduces propagation of misidentified material affecting producers in California, Argentina, New Zealand and South Africa, and contributes to conservation planning referenced by policy fora including FAO technical meetings.
Category:Ampelography Category:Grapevine breeding databases