282 Adv. Hort. Sci., 2010 24(4): 282-284 Received for publication 8 November 2010. Accepted for publication 10 December 2010. Short note RFID technology for clonal selection purposes M. Pagano*, R. Bandinelli*, E. Rinaldelli*, A. Panattoni**, E. Triolo**, A. Luvisi** * Dipartimento di Scienze delle Produzioni Vegetali, del Suolo e dell’Ambiente Agroforestale, Sezio- ne di Coltivazioni arboree, Università degli Studi di Firenze, Viale delle Idee, 30, 50019 Sesto Fio- rentino (FI), Italy. ** Dipartimento di Dipartimento di Coltivazione e Difesa Specie Legnose “G. Scaramuzzi”, Sezione di Patologia Vegetale, Università degli Studi di Pisa, Via del Borghetto, 80, 56124 Pisa, Italy. Key words: database, grapevine, microchip, radiofrequency identification. Abstract: Electronic barcodes based on radiofrequency identification (RFID) technology can be used in plant pathology to keep track of the sample identification. Moreover, phenotypic, environmental and genomical data could be added to RFID tags associated with the assayed plant. This aspect can be very use- ful for clonal selection in grapevine considering the long periods of time during which plants are monitored. RFID technology has been successfully used to identify plants during ampelographic, genetics and sanitary checks during the selection of grapevines in Montalcino (Italy), with no losses in retrieving information from plants. The electronic sheets created for registering results of clonal selection were successfully asso- ciated to each RFID-tagged plant and used for the preparation of the final dossier. The database in which sheets were stored was used for sharing information between researchers, allowing multiple access to data. 1. Introduction Radiofrequency identification (RFID) tags are widely used in industry and logistics to identify and track items along production lines (Ngai et al., 2008). New applications are being rapidly developed (Davis, 2004; Want, 2004) as costs continue to drop and tech- nology advances. With regard to RFID applications to living organisms, reports concern mainly animal iden- tification (Sorenson et al., 1995; Buguk et al., 1998; Caceci et al., 1999), but in recent years tag insertion into plants has been tested (Bowman, 2005; Grieco et al., 2006; Bandinelli et al., 2009) for identification pur- poses along production and marketing lines. Kumagai and Miller (2006) suggest the develop- ment of electronic barcodes based on RFID technology for use in plant pathology. In fact, since many of the assays require offsite diagnostic labs, a major challenge is to keep track of the sample identification number and the precise location where the plant tissue or biological samples were collected. Moreover, phenotypic, envi- ronmental and genomic data could be added to RFID tags associated with the assayed plant. This aspect can be very useful for clonal selection in grapevine. In fact, grapevine selection is based on subsequential steps in which a number of grapevines are monitored in vine- yards for years, as well as their relative propagated grapevines used for sanitarian selection, comparative studies or conservation in screenhouses. This process may involve more than one constitutor unit, research lab, several experimental fields and a large number of plants variously distributed in a large territory linked to that of the originally selected grapevine. Traditional labels are subjected to decolouration, degradation and loss or removal: these issues represent a critical point in clonal selection, considering the long time periods over which plants are monitored. Association an iden- tification microchip with a plant reduces the occur- rence of these issues, in particular, if the microchip is inserted into the grapevine, making its removal or errors in data-to-plant association impossible. More- over, the different constitutors and respective research labs constantly have to update their knowledge of selected plants during the clonal selection process, and fast and safe communication between grapevine con- stitutors can help to avoid errors and loss of informa- tion. 2. Materials and Methods Sanitary selection The trials, started in 2007, concerned 10 plants of