Environmental effect on the production of quality wines: production of grapes and their secondary metabolism

• Grant number: 23/15841-2
• Support Opportunities: Scholarships abroad - Research
• Start date: May 01, 2024
• End date: January 31, 2025
• Field of knowledge: Agronomical Sciences - Agronomy - Crop Science
• Principal Investigator: Mara Fernandes Moura Furlan
• Grantee: Mara Fernandes Moura Furlan
• Host Investigator: Marco Stefanini
• Host Institution: Instituto Agronômico (IAC). Agência Paulista de Tecnologia dos Agronegócios (APTA). Secretaria de Agricultura e Abastecimento (São Paulo - Estado). Campinas , SP, Brazil
• Institution abroad: Fondazione Edmund Mach, Italy

Abstract

Grapevine breeding programs mainly focus on developing new varieties that exhibit improved characteristics, including yield, disease resistance, fruit quality, adaptability to different growing conditions, and tolerance to environmental stresses. Challenges posed by emerging issues related to climate change and well-established pathogens threaten the sustainability of traditional wine-growing systems. Therefore, the genetic improvement of grapevines is essential to face this situation and adapt to new market needs and regulatory frameworks. Among the tools that facilitate the success of these activities, identifying genotypes that harbor favorable alleles and knowing the underlying genomic regions and genetic variants are fundamental to accelerating current and future grapevine improvement activities. One of the main tools currently used is metabolomics, which aims to identify and study the complete combination of small molecular weight molecules (metabolites) of an organism during specific stages of physiological development. Metabolomics studies capture an organism's ultimate response to environmental changes, offering a rapid and affordable means to monitor the impacts of genetic modification conditions and stress responses on an organ, tissue, or group of cells. Therefore, this project aims to evaluate the production, phenology, quality of grapes, incidence, and severity of P. viticola and analyze secondary metabolites of four varieties in six locations in Italy. The experiments are located in Trentino Alto Adige at two altitudes, 220 and 500 m, Emília Romana in Tebano (FC), Marche in the province of Fermo, Veneto in Affi, and Pasiano in the area of PN; in a randomized block design with four replications, with six plants per replication. Analyzes of volatile compounds and phenolic compounds in fruits and targeted lipid compounds in leaves will be carried out, using the Target approach. Statistical analysis and data visualization will be performed with a custom R script.