A versatile genome editing platform for grapevine: improving biotic and abiotic stress resilience 

In grapevine, phenology from bud break to berry maturation, depends on temperature and water availability. Increases in average temperatures accelerates initiation of bud break, exposing newly formed shoots to detrimental environmental stresses. It is therefore essential to identify genotypes that could delay phenology in order to adapt to the environment. The use of different rootstocks has been applied to change scion’s characteristics, to adapt and resist to abiotic and biotic stresses[1].

In Italy, in the past two decades, the rate of temperature increases (0.0369 °C per year) was slightly higher compared to the world average (0.0313 °C per year). It has also been indicated that the number and intensity of heat waves have increased considerably in the last decades. (IEA, 2022). Viticultural zones can be classified with climatic indexes. Huglin’s index (HI) considers the temperature in a definite area and has been considered as reliable to evaluate the thermal suitability for winegrape production (Zhang et al., 2023).

Most of the effects of ultrasound (US) result from the collapse of bubbles due to cavitation. The shockwave produced is associated with shear forces, along with high localised temperatures and pressures. However, the high-speed stream, radical species formation, and heat generated during sonication may also affect the stability of some enzymes and proteins, depending on their chemical structure. Recently, Ce-lotti et al. (2021) reported the effects of US on protein stability in wines. To investigate this further, the effect of temperature (40°C and 70°C; 60s), sonication (20 kHz and 100 % amplitude, for 20s and 60s, leading to the same temperatures as above, respectively), in combination with Aspergillopepsins I (AP-I) supplementation (100 μg/L), was studied on unstable protein concentration (TLPs and chitinases) using HPLC with an UV–Vis detector in a TLPs-supplemented model system and in an unstable white wine.

UV-Visible spectroscopy in conjunction with chemometrics, was successfully applied to objectively differentiate sparkling wine press juice fractions of Pinot noir. Two measurements methods were applied: reflectance using a fibre optic probe in-line and transmission using a benchtop spectrophotometer.

Studies on wineomics (wine’s metabolome) have increased considerably over the last two decades. Wine results from many environmental, human and biological factors leading to a specific metabolome for each terroir. NMR metabolomics is a particularly effective tool for studying the metabolome since it allows the rapid and simultaneous detection of major compounds from several chemical families.1 Quantitative NMR has already proven its effectiveness in monitoring the authenticity of still wines.