Stomatal restrictions to photosynthesis in grapevine cultivars grown in a semiarid environment

Climate is one of the main conditioning factors of winemaking. In this context, bioclimatic indices are a useful zoning tool, allowing the description of the suitability of a particular region

Wine production is a complex biochemical process that involves a heterogeneous microbiota consisting of different microorganisms such as yeasts, bacteria, and filamentous fungi. Among these microorganisms, yeasts play a predominant role in the chemistry of wine, as they actively participate in alcoholic fermentation, a biochemical process that transforms the sugars in grapes into ethanol and carbon dioxide while producing additional by-products. The quality of the final product is greatly influenced by the microbiota present in the grape berry, and the demand for indigenous yeast starters adapted to specific grape must and reflecting the biodiversity of a particular region is increasing. This supports the concept that indigenous yeast strains can be associated with a “terroir”.

The development and application of CRISPR (clustered regularly interspaced short palindromic repeats)/Cas (CRISPR-associated protein) technologies have revolutionized genome editing in plants due to its simplicity, high efficiency, and versatility. As an economically important fruit crop worldwide, grapevine genome editing using CRISPR/Cas technologies has also been reported these years. Here we introduce the development briefly of the most popular CRISPR/Cas9 system and also the state-of-the-art CRISPR technologies developed so far. Moreover, we summarize CRISPR/Cas9-mediated applications for gene functional study and trait improvement in grapevine.

Le Dipartimento di Progettazione dell ‘Architettura del Politecnico di Milano et l’Istituto di Viticoltura della Facoltà d’Agraria di Piacenza dell’Università Cattolica del Sacra Cuore, ont elaboré une proposition pour réaliser, dans l’aire de colline de la province de Piacenza, un Parco Produttivo Agrovitivinicolo.

45 non irrigated vineyards distributed in the DO (Denomination) Pla i Llevant de Mallorca and the DO Binissalem Mallorca were used to investigate the characteristics of production and quality and their relationships certain environmental factors and cultural practices. The grape varieties investigated are autochthonous to the island of Mallorca, Manto Negro and Callet as red and Prensal Blanc as white. All plants were measured for four consecutive years in the main production and quality parameters. Among the environmental factors, the type of soil has been studied, more specifically its water retention capacity, the planting density, the age of the vineyard and the level of viral infection. The presence or absence of virus seems to have no effect on any component studied in the varieties studied. For the white variety Prensal Blanc age is negatively correlated with production and the number of bunches, nevertheless it does not cause any effect on the required quality parameters. However, for the red varieties Callet and Manto Negro, the age of the plantation is the variable that best correlates with the quality parameters, therefore the old vines should be the object of preservation by the viticulturists and winemakers in order to guarantee its contribution to the quality of the wines made with these varieties.