Exogenous dsRNA applications to identify novel candidate susceptibility genes to downy mildew

The concept of viticultural terroir includes soil, sub-soil, and climatic factors but also many management viticultural and oenological practices which are chosen according to know-how of the winegrowers.

The adaptation of rootstock to scion variety and soil determines largely the control of the vegetative growth for grapevine. Many experiments were performed in the vineyard to classify the rootstocks according to their soil adaptation and to their effect on vine vigour. So far there are no data describing the course of appearance of rootstock effects after plantation. Moreover the underlying mechanisms of conferred vigour remain largely unknown.

Moschofilero is a native grape variety, classified as a ‘gris’ type variety, that is cultivated in PDO Mantineia, Peloponissos, Greece. It is used for the production of both white and rosé wines. Due to high altitude of the vineyards, the harvest is done by mid October, and many vintages are characterised by high acidities and low pH values.

Limited information is available on grape wall-derived polymeric structure/composition and how this changes during fermentation. Commercial winemaking operations use enzymes that target the polysaccharide-rich polymers of the cell walls of grape tissues to clarify musts and extract pigments during the fermentations. In this study we have assessed changes in polysaccharide composition/ turnover throughout the winemaking process by applying recently developed cell wall profiling approaches to both wine and pomace polysaccharides. The methods included gas chromatography for monosaccharide composition (GC-MS), infra-red (IR) spectroscopy and comprehensive microarray polymer profiling
(CoMPP) using cell wall probes.

The increase in the temperature and the more severe water stress conditions, trends observed in recent years as a consequence of climate change, are leading a mismatch between the technological and phenolic maturity of grapes