Cell-to-cell contact modulates Starmerella bacillaris early death in mixed fermentations with Saccharomyces cerevisiae in a couple-dependent way

Ground water in the interior valleys of California is contaminated with nitrates derived from agricultural activities, primarily the over-fertilization of crops.

Cover crops are acknowledged to be an interesting tool to produce
higher quality grapes in red varieties, as they generally reduce vine vigour and yield. However, their incidence in white wine quality is not clear, since higher nitrogen availability can play an important positive
role, and cover crops may compete for this nutrient. The possible reduction in available nitrogen can also modify the fermentation processes, as well as the synthesis of aromas in the wine. The aim of this work was to evaluate the long-term effect of a grass cover crop on grape and wine quality.

Addressing the opportunities and challenges of genomics methods in grapevine (Vitis vinifera L.) requires the development of a comprehensive and accurate reference genome and annotation. We aimed to create a new gene annotation for the PN40024 grapevine reference genome by integrating the highly accurate and complete T2T assembly and the manually curated PN40024.v4 annotation. Here, we present a novel workflow to enhance the annotation of the T2T genome by incorporating past community input found in PN40024.v4. The pipeline’s containerization will improve the workflow’s reproducibility and flexibility, facilitating its inclusion as a shared workflow on the Grapedia portal, the grapevine genomics encyclopedia.

Retrotransposons, particularly of the Ty-Copia and Ty-Gypsy superfamilies, represent the most abundant and widespread transposons in many plant genomes. Grapevine is no exception and it is clear that these mobile elements have played a major role in the evolution of Vitaceae genomes. While speculation abounds around the possible role of transposons in plant genomes, outside of the rather obvious involvement of retrotransposition in fueling genome expansion, there is little clarity of the actual role these elements have in both developing new genetic variation and in modulating epigenetic responses within genomes to changing climate. To this end we have been exploring de-novo assembled Sauvignon blanc and Pinot noir genomes with a view to catalogue retrotransposon loci to determine the structural intactness and thus age of insertion variation across a small number of clonal linages of these 2 varietals in an attempt to identify ‘live’ TE loci.

Diverse ripening disorders affect grapevine resulting in high economic losses worldwide. The common obvious symptom is shriveling berries, however the shriveling pattern and the consequences for berry quality traits are distinct in each disorder. Among them, the disorder berry shrivel is characterized by a reduced sugar accumulation short after the onset of berry ripening leaving the clusters unsuitable for wine processing. Although our knowledge on BS increased recently, potential internal or external triggers contributing to the induction of BS are yet to be explored.