DNA-Free genome editing confers disease resistance in grapevine

As environmental issues come more to the fore, vineyards residues are being looked at as solutions rather than problems. Aiming to develop a sustainable methodology for musts acidity correction in the process of winemaking, much needed in warm regions, the present study was performed according to Circular Economy values.

Industry and regulatory agencies have developed regulations to ensure authenticity and compliance with wine composition limits. However, this can be truncated by the absence of simple and robust analytical methodologies, uninfluenced by the environment, different oenological techniques and cultural practices. Genetic fingerprinting is the most powerful tool for unequivocal varietal identification; it is not affected by the environment or agronomic practices; however, its usefulness in musts and wines has been controversial and there is currently no routine certification of varietal origin based on DNA analysis.

AIM: Vitamins are essential compounds to numerous organisms, including yeasts, and appear highly significant during winemaking processes.

The ongoing climate change results in increasing mean air temperature, which is manifested by weather extremes or sudden changes between drought and local heavy rainfalls. These changing conditions are especially challenging for the established grapevine varieties growing under cool climate conditions due to an increased biotic infection pressure. Thus, the scope of most grapevine breeding programs is the selection of mildew fungus-resistant and climatic adapted grapevines with balanced, healthy yield and outstanding wine quality. Since no resistances or candidate genes have yet been described for Botrytis bunch rot (BBR), physical-mechanical traits like berry size and thick, impermeable berry cuticles phenotyped with high-throughput sensors represent novel effective parameters to predict BBR.

Cannonau variety is historically grown in a large Sardinia area (Jerzu district) and the vineyards are planted both in the plane and in the sloped hills reaching also 650 m of altitude a.s.l. Thus, in order to discover how climate, soil diversity and growing traditions could account for differences in grape and wine quality, this trial was carried out.