Vitis champinii cultivars Ramsey and Dog-ridge are main choices for rootstocks to adapt viticulture in semi-arid and arid regions thanks to their distinctive tolerance to drought and salinity. However, genetic studies on non-vinifera rootstocks have heavily relied on the grapevine (Vitis vinifera) reference genome, which difficulted the assessment of the genetic variation between rootstock species and grapevines. In the present study, this limitation is addressed by introducing a novo phased genome assembly and annotation of Vitis champinii. This new Vitis champinii genome was employed as reference for mapping RNA-seq reads from the same species under drought and salt stresses, and for comparison the same reads were also mapped to the Vitis vinifera PN40024.V4 reference genome. A significant increase in alignment rate was gained when mapping Vitis champinii RNA-seq reads to its own genome, compared to the Vitis vinifera PN40024.V4 reference genome, thus revealing the expression levels of genes specific to Vitis champinii. Moreover, differences in coding sequences were observed in ortholog genes between Vitis champinii and Vitis vinifera, which therefore challenges previous differential expression analyses performed between contrasting Vitis genotypes on the same gene from the Vitis vinifera genome. Genes with possible implications in drought and salt tolerance have been identified across the genome of Vitis champinii, and the same genomic data can potentially guide the discovery of candidate genes specific from Vitis champinii for other traits of interest, therefore becoming a valuable resource for rootstock breeding designs, specially towards increased drought and salinity due to climate change.

Grapes development is determined by grape cultivar and vineyard climatic conditions and consequently affecting the phenolic and aroma on grapes and wines. Abscisic Acid (ABA) plays a key role in the promotion of fruit ripening and fruit anthocyanin content. Herein, we report the impact of ABA to grape ripening and wine quality.

The SUSTAIN project aims at assessing the soil organic carbon (SOC) stock and vulnerability in vineyard soils under a climate change scenario.

The wine producing regions of South Africa are characterized by climatic diversity. The Coastal Region has a Mediterranean climate, with a mean annual rainfall of c.

Ecological resources represent vegetation factors, or even production factors, in quantitative expression. These, used by plants, transformed and organized according to their genetic program, become the material components of biomass. Subsequently, the ecological resources can be used as synthetic indicators of the ecological supply, necessary for the analysis of favorability for the understanding of ecosystems.