Influence of organic plant treatment on the terroir of microorganisms

Many high quality Open Source scientific applications have been available for a long time. Some of them have proved to be particularly useful for carrying out the usual activities involved in viticultural research projects, such as statistical analyses (including spatial analyses), GIS work, database management (possibly integrated with statistical and spatial analysis) and even “low-level” often highly time-consuming activities (e.g. repetitive task on text files).

Wine contains so many odorants that all its olfaction-related perceptions are, inevitably, the result of the interaction between many odorants.

According to the last IPCC report, the scale of recent climate changes are unprecedented over many centuries. Each of the last four decades has been successively warmer than any decade since 1850. Projections for the future foresee that temperature could reach +3.3°C to +5.7°C under the most pessimistic scenario. It is also projected that every region will face more concurrent and multiple changes in climatic impact-drivers. The frequency of extreme climate events is also likely to increase, as well as the occurrence of indirect constraints. These evolving climatic conditions are alrealdy affecting and will continue to affect the suitability of traditional wine grape production areas, but also create opportunities in new locations.

The sensory characteristics of wine are a topic studied by several researchers over time, but it continues to be a current and challenging subject. These characteristics are fundamental for the consumer acceptability, which has increasingly aroused their interest to modulate them in line with current market trends and innovation demands. The wine physical-chemical and sensory properties depend on a wide set of factors: they begin to be designed in the vineyard and are later constructed during the various stages of winemaking. Afterwards, the wine is placed in bottles and stored or commercialized.

Grapes (Vitis vinifera L.) are a fruit crop of high economic significance globally. Each grapevine cultivar is characterized by its distinctive grape aroma, affecting the wine quality. In several cultivars, the aroma is shaped by terpenoid (mono- and sesqui-terpenoids). Their profile is controlled by terpene synthases (TPS), which are part of a largely expanded gene family. How the variation in TPS copy number and sequence among cultivars determines terpenoid profiles of grapes remains largely unexplored. We annotated TPS in the haplotypes of seven genomes (Riesling, Albariño, Fiano, Gewürztraminer, Pinot Noir, Cabernet Sauvignon, and Viognier) using BLAST, GMAP, PFAM, and phylogenetic analyses. Further, TPS expression patterns and terpenoid accumulation during berry development and ripening were characterized using RNA-Seq and SPME/GC-MS platforms, respectively. Variation in TPS copy number exists among cultivars. Specifically, the TPS counts span a range of 251 to 150 for Riesling and Fiano, respectively, when considering combined haplotypes within each cultivar. Total terpenoid accumulation patterns throughout development were consistent among the five aromatic cultivars, marked by high concentrations in flowers, followed by a decline and subsequent rise during berry development and ripening, respectively. Conversely, non-aromatic cultivars exhibited no substantial increase in terpenoid concentration during ripening. Transcriptome and network analyses are currently employed to determine which TPS are expressed in the berry and determine the terpenoid profile of the specific cultivar. These findings shed light on the genomic determinants of grape aroma in major cultivars, and allow future studies focused on cultivar-specific responses of terpenoid biosynthesis to environmental stresses.