Reduced berry skin epi-cuticular wax and cutin accumulation associates with a genomic deletion and increased polyphenols extractability in a clone of Tempranillo Tinto 

Grapevines are grown grafted in most viticultural regions. Grapevine rootstocks are either hybrids or pure species of different American Vitis spp. (particularly V. berlandieri, V. rupestris and V. riparia), which were primarily used to provide root resistance to the insect pest Phylloxera. In addition to Phylloxera resistance, grapevine rootstocks were also selected in relation their resistance to various abiotic stress conditions. Future rootstocks should have the potential to adapt viticulture to climate change without changing the characteristics of the harvested product. However, high grafting success rates are an essential prerequisite to be able to use them with all the varieties. The objective of this work is to develop quantitative techniques to characterize graft union formation in grapevine.

Endogenic diseases often arise from pathogens that exist within the plant tissue, including fungi, bacteria, and viruses, which can remain latent and then emerge under stress conditions or favorable environmental conditions, causing symptoms that weaken vines or can lead to plant death.

Rachis browning is a common abiotic stress that occurs during postharvest storage, leading to a decrease in commercial value of table grapes and resulting in significant economic losses. Its early detection could enable the implementation of preventive strategies. In this report, we show the feasibility of a non-destructive early detection of browning based on Hyper Spectral Imaging (HSI). Furthermore, rachis samples were subjected to transcriptomic analysis to understand putative pathways causing differences in browning within varieties.

Nowadays the use of Torulaspora delbrueckii is more and more common in winemaking. However, its behavior in presence of Saccharomyces cerevisiae is not always predictable.

Farming management practices aiming at conserving soil moisture have been developed in arid and semiarid-areas facing water scarcity problems. Organic mulching is an effective method to manipulate the crop-growing microclimate increasing crop yield by controlling soil temperature, and retaining soil moisture by reducing soil evaporation. In this sense, the effectiveness of different organic mulching materials (straw mulch and grapevine pruning debris) applied within the row of a vineyard was evaluated on the soil and on the vine in a Tempranillo vineyard located in La Rioja (Spain). Organic mulches were compared with a traditional bare soil management technique (based on the use of herbicides to avoid weed incidence). Mulching coverages favourably influenced the soil water retention throughout all the grapevine vegetative cycle. However, the soil-moisture variation was not the same under different mulching materials, being the straw mulch (SM) the one that retained more water in comparison with grapevine pruning debris (GPD) based-cover. The changes of soil moisture in the upper surface layer (0–10 cm) were highly dynamic, probably due to water vapour fluxes across the soil-atmospheric interface. However, both, SM and GPD reduced these fluctuations as compared with bare soils. A similar trend occurred with soil temperature. Both organic mulches altered soil temperature in comparison with bare soil by reducing soil temperature in summer and raising it in winter. Moreover, the same buffering effect for the temperature on the covered soil also remains in the deeper layers. To conclude, we could see that organic mulching had a positive impact on soil-moisture storage and soil temperature and the extent of this effect depends on the type of mulching materials. These changes led to higher rates of photosynthesis and stomatal conductivity compared to bare soils, also favouring crop growth and grape yields.