Drought tolerance assessment and differentiation of grapevine cultivars using physiological metrics: insights from field studies

In the 19th century, devastating outbreaks of phylloxera (Daktulosphaira vitifoliae Fitch), almost brought European viticulture to its knees. Phylloxera does not only take energy in form of sugars from the vine, but also affects the up- and down- regulations of genes, acts as a carbon sink and reprograms the physiology of the grapevines, including nutrient uptake and the defense system [1]. A key trait of rootstocks is the ability to perform well under high lime conditions as about 30 % of the land surface has calcareous soil. Iron deficiency not only causes the well-known problems of lime-induced chlorosis and stunted growth, but also affects the entire plant metabolism.

The fortress of the Herodium, built towards the end of the first century BCE/ante Cristo, on the orders of Herod the Great, Roman client king of Judea, attests the expansion of Roman influence in the eastern Mediterranean. During archaeological excavations of the Herodium in 2017[1], a winery was discovered on the ground floor of the palace, with an assortment of clay vessels in situ, including large dolia – clay fermentation vessels each capable of fermenting up to 300-400 L of wine. Thanks to the recent progresses in the field of paleogenomics[2], we could analyse the organic material consistent with grape pomace at the bottom of these vessels, by extracting and sequencing the DNA using shotgun metagenomics and targeted capture, aiming for enrichment of DNA from fermentation associated microbes.

INTEGRAPE was a European interdisciplinary network for “data integration to maximize the power of omics for grapevine improvement” (CA17111, https://integrape.eu/), funded by the European COST Association from September 2018 to 2022. This Action successfully developed guidelines and tools for data management and promoted the best practices in grapevine omics studies with a holistic future vision of: “Imagine having all data on grapevine accessible in a single place”.

The vital role of soils in supporting life on our planet cannot be overstated. Soils provide numerous ecosystem services and functions, including biomass production, carbon sequestration, physical support, biological habitat, and genetic reserve, among others. Understanding the characteristics and sensitivity of soils in a specific terroir, along with effective soil management practices, is crucial for the sustainable management of natural resources.

Red grape pomace can be an important source of polysaccharides, but currently they are little studied and even less with viable and environmental extraction processes (green extraction). These green techniques must be able to break the cell wall so that the compounds contained in the cells, including polysaccharides, are released and can have a great influence on extraction yields, the chemical structure of polysaccharides and applications in wines. Amongst the emerging green techniques most applied to the extraction of bioactive compounds, such as polysaccharides, high-power ultrasound (US) and enzyme-assisted extraction stand out.