Evaluation of the effects of pruning methodology on the development of young vines 

The disruptive effect exerted by high-power ultrasound (US) on plant cell walls, natural barriers to the diffusion of compounds of interest during the maceration of red wines, is established as the reason behind the chromatic improvement that its treatment causes. However, sometimes this improvement is not observed, especially with short maceration times. The presence of a high quantity of suspended cell wall material, which formation is favored by the sonication, could be the cause of this lack of positive results since this cell wall material has a high affinity for phenolic compounds.

One of the main aspects of Climate Change is the increase of temperatures during summer and grape maturity period. Physiological processes are influenced by these high temperatures and result in grapes with higher sugar concentration, less acidity and less anthocyanin content among other quality changes. One strategy to deal with the climate change effects is the implementation of late winter pruning to alter the effect of high temperatures during key periods by delays in maturity time.

Crops are facing increasing biotic and abiotic stress pressures due to global changes. However, trade-off mechanisms between these stresses and the underlying physiological processes are still poorly understood, especially in perennial crop species. To better understand these trade-offs, we studied the effect of drought on grapevine (Vitis vinifera) physiology and esca-related wood fungal communities. Esca is a vascular disease caused by a community of wood-infecting pathogenic fungi, and characterized by trunk necrosis, leaf scorch symptoms, yield losses, and mortality.

Grape pomace (GP) is a winemaking by-product particularly rich in (poly)phenols and dietary fiber, which are the main active compounds responsible for its health-promoting effects. GP-derived products have been proposed to manage cardiovascular risk factors, including endothelial dysfunction, inflammation, hypertension, hyperglycemia, and obesity. Studies on the potential impact of GP on gut health are much more recent. However, it is suggested that, to some extent, this activity of GP as a cardiometabolic health-promoting ingredient would begin in the gastrointestinal tract as GP components (i.e., (poly)phenols and fiber) undergo extensive catabolism, mainly by the action of the intestinal microbiota, that gives rise to low-molecular-weight bioactive compounds that can be absorbed and utilized by the body.

Improving our knowledge on biotic and abiotic factors that influence the composition of the grapevine mycobiome is of great agricultural significance, due to potential effects on plant health, productivity, and wine characteristics. Among the various environmental factors affecting the morphological, physiological, biochemical and molecular attributes of grapevine, drought stress is one of the most severe, becoming increasingly an issue worldwide.