Somatic embryogenesis and polyploidy in grapevine: morphological shoot and leaf traits variations

Monoterpenes are important aroma compounds in white wines. Many monoterpenes are chiral and the chiral forms have different aroma qualities.

Vitis vinifera is one of the most diffused grapevines over the word and it is the raw material for high quality wines production. The availability of more resistant interspecific hybrid vine varieties, developed from crosses between Vitis vinifera and other Vitis species, has generating much interest, also due to the low environmental effect of production. However, hybrid grape wine composition and varietal differences between interspecific hybrids are not well defined. Different studies revealed that wine consumption has health effects due to its high content of antioxidants, as phenolic compounds. In particular, simple phenols are appreciated not only for their physiological health benefits, including antioxidant, anti-inflammatory and cardioprotective effects, but also because they affect wines organoleptic profile and have a significant role in defining their nutritional characteristics.

Mannoproteins (MPs) are released from the yeast cell wall during alcoholic fermentation and aging on the lees, and influence aspects of wine quality such as haze formation and colour stability. Yet, as this is a slow process with microbiological and sensory risks, the exogenous addition of extracted MPs poses an efficient alternative. While Saccharomyces cerevisiae has long been studied as a prominent source for MPs extraction, their structure and composition greatly differ between yeast species. This may influence their behaviour in the wine matrix and subsequent impact on wine properties. However, although wine yeast species other than S. cerevisiae possibly present an untapped source of MPs, they are still ill-characterised in terms of chemical composition and influence on wine.

Field irrigation experiments were performed on young « Nonpareil » almond trees, mature « Bartlett » pear trees and mature « Pinot Noir » grapevines, to determine the relation of a number of alternative measures of plant water status (predawn and midday stem and leaf water potential), to a number of indices of plant physiological activity (leaf conductance, vegetative growth and fruit growth and composition).

The bunch rot induced by Botrytis cinerea is an important disease of grapevine that causes a diminution of grape quality and a considerable yield loss leading to an economic loss