DNA authentication of wines is a process of verifying their authenticity by genetic identification of the main plant component. The sample preparation of experimental and commercial wines was carried out by precipitation of wine debris by centrifugation with preliminary exposure with precipitators and co-precipitators, including developed macro- and micro-volume methods applicable to white or red wines, using polyvinylpyrrolidone as a co-precipitator. Addition of 2-mercaptoethanol and proteinase K to the lysing solution made it possible to adapt the technology for DNA extraction from the precipitated wine debris. The additionally tested technique of DNA extraction from wine debris by dimethyl sulfoxide (DMSO) lysis had fewer stages and, consequently, a lower risk of contamination. The results of further testing of one of the designed primer pairs (UFGT-F1 and UFGT-R1) in conjunction with the tested methods of wine material sample preparation and nucleic acid extraction, showed the advantage in the given set of oligonucleotides over previously used ones in terms of sensitivity, specificity and reproducibility. The developing strategy for genetic identification of grape varieties and DNA authentication of wines produced from them based on direct sequencing of polymerase chain reaction (PCR) products is implemented by interpreting the detected polymorphic positions of variable Vitis vinifera L. UFGT gene locus with distribution and split into 13 UFGT gene-associated groups.
Keywords: DNA extraction and amplification; SNP; UFGT; Vitis vinifera L; authentication; sample preparation; wine.