Do wine lees derived biomolecule mixtures lead to enhancing the grapevine innate immunity? A metabolomic study on Vitis vinifera leaves

Abstract

Downy mildew (Plasmopara viticola) is one of the most devastating diseases of Vitis vinifera. The use of products containing compounds that rapidly enhance the self-defense of Vitis vinifera, is a promising strategy for crop protection, as pathogens are prone to developing resistance to chemical pesticides. In this context, this work aimed to evaluate the effects of products derived from wine lees, by-products of the winemaking industry [1], on P. viticola inoculated detached leaves of the Agiorgitiko cv. (Vitis vinifera). We investigated metabolic profile of leaves treated with wine lees derived biomolecule mixtures, upon infection with P. viticola after 24 and 48 hours post inoculation (hpi), by applying an untargeted metabolomics approach (using an HPLC-TIMS-QTOF) [2]. By utilizing Data-Dependent Acquisition (DDA) to obtain MS/MS fragmentation patterns, we successfully annotated 125 metabolites. Among these, 10 tentative biomarkers were significantly modulated during the defense response to pathogen infection, and all the immune system-related pathways were up-regulated by the treatment with wine lees derived biomolecule mixture. This work highlights the relevance of wine lees-derived biomolecule mixtures in metabolomic perturbations that alter metabolic pathways related to grapevine innate immunity, thereby reducing symptoms and compromising pathogen angiospore production. The research project is implemented in the framework of the H.F.R.I. call “Basic research Financing (Horizontal support of all Sciences)” under the National Recovery and Resilience Plan “Greece 2.0” funded by the European Union—NextGenerationEU (Hellenic Foundation for Research and Innovation Project Number: 15100).

References

[1] Ntourtoglou, G.; Tzamourani, A.; Kasioura, A.; Tsioka, A.; Gimenez-Gil, P.; Gkizi, D.; Dimopoulou, M.; Arapitsas, P.; Evangelou, A. (2025). Efficient Yeast Inactivation and Protein Extraction from Wine Lees Using Pulsed Electric Fields and Ultrasound: A Comparative Energy-Based Approach. Appl. Sci., 15, 9860. https://doi.org/10.3390/app15189860

[2] Arapitsas, P.; Marinaki, M.; Virgiliou, C.; Theodoridis, G. (2026). Untargeted metabolomics reveals key biochemical shifts during industrial Muscat of Alexandria alcoholic fermentation. Food Chem., 506, 148090.