Volatile organic compounds: a role in elicitor-induced resistance of grapevine against pathogens?

Pinot noir is an interesting vat variety for the high quality products it provides in the most suitable areas. In France, the most important Pinot Noir growing areas are Burgundy, Champagne, Alsace and the Loire. In Italy, Pinot Noir is grown almost exclusively in the northern regions of Trentino-Alto Adige, Lombardy and Friuli-Venezia Giulia.

Climate change impacts grape production worldwide and in California drought and salinity became increasingly challenging for grape growers to maintain sustainable production and fruit quality.

The State Rio Grande do Sul is the main producer of Brazilian fine wines, with four viticultural regions. The objective is the characterization of the viticultural climatic potential of the State (total surface of 281.749 km2). The methodology use the Géoviticulture Multicriteria Climatic Classification System (Géoviticulture MCC System), based on three climatic indices – Dryness Index (DI), Heliotermal Index (HI) and Cool Night Index (CI).

​For several years, the chemistry of taste has aroused high interest both from academics and industrials. Plant kingdom is a rich and reliable source of new taste-active compounds. Many sweet, bitter or sour molecules have been identified in various plants [1]. They belong to diverse chemical families and their sensory properties are strongly affected by slight structural modifications. As a consequence, the investigation of natural taste-active products in a given matrix appears as a major challenge for chemists. Such studies are particularly relevant in oenology since they allow a better understanding of wine and spirit taste.

Tempranillo Tinto (TT) is the third-most planted red wine variety in the world, and it is mostly grown in the Iberian Peninsula. Spontaneous somatic variation appearing during vegetative propagation can be exploited to improve elite varieties as Tempranillo Tinto, including the selection of new phenotypes enhancing berry quality. We described previously that a somatic variant of TT with darker fruit color, the clone VN21, exhibits increased extractability of polyphenols during the winemaking process. To unravel the molecular mechanism underlying this phenomenon, we performed whole-genome resequencing to compare VN21 to other TT clones, revealing a 10 Mb deletion in chromosome 11 that likely affected only the L1 meristem cell layer of VN21 and tissues derived from it, such as external cell layers of berry skin.