REDWINE project: use of Chlorella vulgaris to prevent biotic and abiotic stress in Palmela’s region, Portugal, vineyards

Ectopic RNA application for plant defense faces challenges in tree crops, including size, diffusion, and stability of active compounds such as ribonucleoproteins and nucleic acids. While existing strategies involve expressing dsRNA in transgenic plants targeting pathogens, our research strives to develop a transient RNAi system based on Spray-Induced Gene Silencing (SIGS). This approach aims to circumvent legal barriers and public concerns associated with genetically modified organisms (GMOs). Our strategy integrates SIGS with branched polyethyleneimine-functionalized Carbon Dots (bPEI-CDs) as nanocarriers, effectively addressing unique delivery challenges in plant defense as RNA stability and uptake enhancement

Global warming is shifting vine phenology, resulting in a decoupling of phenolic and technological berry ripening. This is altering the balance of fruit traits, which is key relevance to winegrowers

Italy, like all the major vine-growing and wine-producing countries, has experienced a decline in wine export volumes in recent years.

Geospatial technologies have significant contribution to viticulture, especially in small-scale vineyards, which require precise management. Geospatial data collected by modern technologies, such as Unmanned Aerial Vehicle (UAV) and satellite imagery, can be processed by modern software and easily be stored and transferred to GIS environments, highlighting important information about the health of vine plants, the yield of grapes and the wine, especially in wine-making varieties. The identification of field variability is very important, particularly for the production of high quality wine. Modern geospatial data management technologies are used to achieve an easy and effortless localization of the fields’ variability.

For wine areas around the world, nature and climate are becoming factors of production whose endowment becomes a stake beyond the traditional economic factors: labor, capital, land. They strongly influence agricultural and environmental conditions for production.