Arsenic in berries and its correlation with natural soil content: experience in Trentino (Italy)

Grapevine is a plant that holds significant socioeconomic importance due to its production of grapes for fresh consumption, wines, and juices. However, climate changes and susceptibility to diseases pose a threat to the quality and yield of these products. The breeding of new genotypes that are resistant/tolerant to biotic and abiotic stresses is essential to overcome the impact of climate changes. In this regard, Marker-assisted selection (MAS), which uses DNA markers, is a crucial tool in breeding programs. The efficiency and economy of this method depend on finding rapid DNA isolation methods.

The strategy of single berry phenotyping is a recently rediscovered research tool that has gained great attention. The latest studies have indicated that previous physiological models based on pooling asynchronous populations of berries provided biased or blurred information on berry development key players. The possibility of monitoring and sampling single synchronized berries to study their development sequentially has opened new lines of research aimed at unraveling the genes that regulate grapevine fruit development. This study aimed to decipher the gene pathways responsible for the activation/deactivation of physiological processes involved in the green phase of growth, the onset of ripening, and the second growth phase.

The chemical composition of grape berries at harvest is one of the key aspects influencing wine quality and depends mainly on the ripeness level of grapes. Climate change affects this trait, unbalancing technological and phenolic ripeness, and this further raises the need for a fast determination of the grape maturity in order to quickly and efficiently determine the optimal time for harvesting. To this end, the characterization of variety-specific ripening curves and the development of new and rapid methods for determining grape ripeness are of key importance.

The definition of the term “quality” in sensory evaluation of food products does not seem to be consensual. Descriptive or liking methods are generally used to differentiate between wines (Lawless et al., 1997). Nevertheless, quality evaluation of a product such as wine can also relate to emotional aspects. As exposed by Costell (2002), product quality is defined as an integrated impression, like acceptability, pleasure, or emotional experiences during tasting. According to the ‘modality appropriateness’ hypothesis which predicts that wine tasters weigh the most suitable sensory inputs for a specific assess- ment (Freides, 1974; Welch & Warren, 1980), the nature of the quality definitions may modulate sensory influences.

Insufficient acidity in grapes from warm(ing) climates is commonly corrected through addition of tartaric acid during vinification, and less so with other organic acids. One alternative approach involves bio-acidification with certain strains of Lachancea thermotolerans (LT) via lactic acid production during fermentation.