Functional characterisation of genetic elements regulating bunch morphology in grapevine

The Columbia Basin, a semi-arid region centered in the eastern part of Washington State, is the second largest wine grape growing region in the United States and presently contains 10 American Viticultural Areas

Climate change presents a challenge for agriculture worldwide. Yet, crop productivity is negatively impacted by abiotic hazards such as high temperatures and water deficit.

The need to rationalize agricultural inputs has recently increased interest in assessing vineyard variability in order to implement variable rate input applications, so-called ‘precision viticulture’. In many viticultural areas globally, precision viticulture is already widely used such as for selective harvesting and variable rate application (VRA) of inputs such as irrigation and/or fertilizer. Robust VRA relies on having a geostatistically accurate map (of one or more vineyard attributes) requiring high sampling densities, which can be cost- and time-prohibitive to obtain. Previous work on spatial interpolation using kriging have upscaled ground-based measurements, but such upscaling strategies are applicable only when vineyard conditions are spatially continuous and satisfies the assumption of second-order stationary processes. Alternatively, mixed models that combine kriging and auxiliary information, such as the regression kriging (RK) method, are more instructive for spatial predictions. In order to improve prediction accuracies, it is therefore necessary to incorporate additional information to achieve accurate spatial patterns with low error.

Plant diseases are a major obstacle to crop production. The main approaches to battle plant diseases, consist of synthetic chemicals to attack infecting pathogens. However, concerns are increasing about the effects of chemicals in the environment, leading to an increase in the use of biocontrol agents (BCAs), due to their assets, such as, antagonism, and competition. In this study, we tested the hypothesis that the introduction of Bacillus subtilis PTA-271 (Bs PTA-271) and Trichoderma atroviride SC1 (Ta SC1) produce distinctive modifications in the composition and network structure of the grapevine rhizosphere microbial community, as well as grapevine induced defenses.

The analysis of consumer attitudes towards wine, especially towards wines perceived as faulty, is an aspect that requires more research than has been carried out so far [1]. This study aims to analyse consumer behaviour in situations involving the consumption of faulty wines and to assess the level of acceptance of such wines.