Armenia: historical origin of domesticated grapevine

Wine production is a globally significant and intricate industry, characterized by diverse regions, grape varieties, and producers. Competitive advantage in wine production and marketing arises from localized natural attributes known as terroir, combined with transferable expertise in agronomic practices, winemaking methods, packaging, distribution, and marketing. Wine is a very globalized product with 40% of the total output exported. Globalization has prompted discussions on convergence of business and production practices across industries, driven by technological progress and adoption of international standards. However, persisting differences in cultural norms, institutional frameworks, and regulatory environments hinder full convergence.

The Institut Français De La Vigne Et Du Vin (IFV) is conducting many experiments on innovative winegrowing practices, which are emerging in companies in the sector, or which are still at the R&D stage for agricultural suppliers. The purpose of these practices may be to reduce environmental impact, to adapt vineyards to climate change, or to achieve other technical, economic or social aims. Whatever the objective, it is necessary to verify the relevance of these new practices, and in particular their environmental relevance, i.e. That at the very least, the changes in practices do not increase the environmental impact of the technical itineraries.

Among the factors that influence the sensory quality, style, safety, sustainability, and sense of place of a wine, the contributions of microbial biodiversity are widely becoming more recognized. Throughout winemaking, multiple biochemical reactions are performed by a myriad of different microorganisms interacting in many ways.

The vineyard is capable of fixing carbon in its permanent structure from atmospheric carbon dioxide, through the process of gas exchange and the performance of photosynthesis. The photosynthetic capacity of the vineyard depends on the water resources that the plant may have at its disposal, so the amount of dry matter, derived from the processed photosynthates, that it can store will depend on the water regime of the crop, both in the annually renewable organs as in permanent parts.

The precise molecular mechanisms underlying the domestication of grapevine (Vitis vinifera L.) Are still not fully understood. In the recent years, next-generation sequencing (NGS) of plastid genomes has emerged as a powerful and increasingly effective tool for plant phylogenetics and evolution. To uncover the biological profile of the grapevine domestication process comprehensively, an investigation should encompass both the cultivated varieties (V. vinifera subsp. Vinifera) and their wild ancestors V. vinifera subsp. Sylvestris) across all potential sites of their distribution and domestication.