Abstract
The grapevine (Vitis vinifera L.) is one of the oldest and economically important fruit crops. Archaeological and genetic evidence suggests that the domestication of the grapevine began 6,000-8,000 years ago in Southwest Asia, with subsequent spread through Southern Greece to the Mediterranean region. However, the domestication history of grapevine remains largely unknown. Several scenarios have been proposed including possible secondary domestication in Western Europe, various origins of varietal lineages, and various introgression levels from local wild grapevines. The extent to which millennial changes in vinicultural practices and vineyard management have shaped present-day genomic diversity is also largely debated. The ANR-funded VINICULTURE program aims to investigate the diversity of grapevine in France from the origins of viticulture to the Middle Ages. To achieve this objective, we applied high-throughput sequencing to an assemblage of 155 waterlogged ancient grape pips from archaeological sites spread all over France. We characterised 49 new ancient grape genomes dating from the Bronze age to Roman times. Comparison to whole-genome sequence data from a diversity panel of ancient and present-day grape accessions revealed the diversity range in the ancient genetic pool. It also demonstrated long-distance exchange and temporal lineage maintenance as common ancient viniculture practices in France.