Berry shrivel causes – summarizing current hypotheses

The “Geoviticulture Multicriteria Climatic Classification (MCC) System” was developed to characterize the climate of the wine producing regions of the world.

Resistance to phylloxera (Daktulosphaira vitifoliae) is the most important trait in grapevine rootstock breeding. Up to now, there are eight quantitative trait loci (QTL) described mediating resistance on roots or leaves. In order to understand the genetic basis of one of these genetic loci, the genome of the resistance donor ‘Börner’ was sequenced and the genomic region of the Rdv1 locus analyzed.

Riesling is the iconic grape variety of Germany and accounts for 23% of the German viticulture acreage, which comprises 45% of the worldwide Riesling plantings.

Wine flavour is the integration of distinct physiologically defined sensory systems that combine taste, aroma and trigeminal sensations, and it is a key determinant factor for the acceptance of wine by consumers. Volatile compounds, are important contributors to wine flavour, specially to aroma. These small and low-boiling point compounds are easily released into the air allowing to enter and move within the nasal or oral cavities where they can bind the olfactory receptors. Additionally, wine also contains aroma precursors, which are non-volatile compounds, but that can be broken down releasing volatile odorants. During wine tasting, all these chemicals (volatiles and non-volatiles) can be submitted to the action of salivary enzymes.

Viticulture and grapevine breeding programs have to face and adapt to the rapidly changing growing conditions due to the ongoing climate change, the scarcity of resources and the demand for sustainability within the whole value chain of wine production. In times of highly effective and cost-efficient genotyping technologies routinely applied in plant research and breeding, the need for comparable high-speed and high-resolution phenotyping tools has increased substantially. The disciplines of grapevine research, breeding and precision viticulture picked up this demand – mostly independent from each other – by the development, validation and establishment of different sensor technologies in order to extend management strategies or to transform labor-intensive and expensive phenotyping.