20-Year-Old data set: scion x rootstock x climate, relationships. Effects on phenology and sugar dynamics

Vineyards are complex agro-ecosystems with high spatial and temporal variability. An efficient training system may counteract the adverse effects of this variability. Moreover, considering the climate change issues, choosing an efficient training system that enhances water use and protects the vines from radiative thermal stress has become a priority for the farmers. A multidisciplinary approach that assesses the soil-crop-yield-wine relationships of vineyards in a distributed and holistic way could bring added knowledge on the behavior of the different training systems. This ongoing research aimed to implement a multidisciplinary approach to study the behavior of “Aglianico del Vulture” grapevines trained with two different systems: a spurred cordon (SC) and an “Alberello in parete” (AL), grown in a high-quality wine production area of Basilicata region (Italy). The approach merged several methods and scales of soil, ecophysiology, must/wine quality, and spectral data collection to assess the influence of the training system. Homogeneous zones (HZs) in both training systems were defined through a procedure based on geomorphological classification, unmanned aerial vehicles (UAV) images analysis, and a traditional soil survey supported by geophysical scanning. During the 2021 season, TDR probes monitored soil water content, while grapevine health status was assessed using eco-physiological measurements (LWP, chlorophyll content, PSII photosynthetic efficiency, LAI, and point-based field spectroscopy). These grapevine in-vivo measurements validated the spectral vegetation indexes (NDVI, RENDVI, CVI, and TVI) derived from the UAV multispectral imagery, which monitored the grapevine status in a distributed and non-invasive way. Grape yield, quality of berries, must and wine were measured to assess the effects of the training systems. The first experimental year results showed the variability of the vineyards and revealed relationships among soil parameters, crop characteristics, and vegetation indices of the SC and AL training systems. This multidisciplinary study could bring new insights into the vineyard training system’s effects on grape yield and wine quality.

The foliar application of urea has been shown to be able to satisfy the specific nutritional needs of the vine as well as to increase the nitrogen composition of the must. On the other hand, the use of nanotechnology could be of great interest in viticulture as it would help to slow down the release of urea and protect it against possible degradation. Several studies indicate that cell wall synthesis and remodeling are affected by nitrogen availability.

Soil is a three-dimensional complex system, which constitutes a major component of Terroir. Soil characteristics strongly influence vine development, grape oenological potentialities and thus wine quality and style.

Climate change is here. One of the main consequences is an increase in the frequency and severity of abiotic stresses which mostly occur in a combined manner. Grapevine, which grows in a large diversity of pedo-climatic conditions, has presumably evolved different mechanisms to allow this widespread adaptation. Harnessing the genetic diversity in these mechanisms will be central to the future of viticulture in many traditional wine growing areas. The interactions between the scion and the rootstock through grafting add an additional level of diversity and adaptive potential to explore.
At the physiological level, these mechanisms are related to processes such as root system development and functioning (water and nutrient uptake), interactions with the soil microbiome, gas exchange regulation, hydraulic properties along the soil-plant-atmosphere continuum, reserve storage, short and long distance signaling mechanisms and plasticity for some of these traits.

Cis-acting regulatory elements are DNA sequences that can be bound by transcription factors to regulate the expression of genes in a condition-dependent and tissue-specific way. It is nowadays possible to search for DNA motives and sequences that a given transcription factor is binding or at least can, but it is still hard to have a glance at all the transcription factors that are contemporaneously located at the same locus. Inspired by an existing technique that uses the CRISPR-Cas system in mammal cells, we are trying to develop a protocol to study such regulation in Vitis vinifera. Using the highly sequence-specific binding capacity of a catalytically inactive Cas9 protein (dCas9), our idea is to set up a system to target a desired sequence and precipitate all the crosslinked proteins and distantly interacting chromatin at this locus and analyze them.