WINE GRAPE’S GENETIC CODE HOLDS NO MORE SECRETS: GENOME SEQUENCED WITH A PINOT NOIR VARIETY

The wine grape’s genetic code holds no more secrets. After six years of studies and research, a group of researchers at the Agrarian Institute of San Michele all’Adige (Trento) has sequenced the grape’s genome by using as a model plant the Pinot Noir variety, one of the most important cultivars worldwide. Thus, the grapevine has become the first fruiting plant, and the second food crop plant, to have its genome sequenced. The news was announced recently by the autonomous region of Trento, which had funded the research, together with the Fondazione Cassa di Risparmio of Trento and Rovereto.

The research team, together with the University of Udine, had already produced “the physical map of the grapevine” in 2004, with which the 19 chromosomes were then reconstructed. The research then continued on with the sequencing of the entire genome of the grape, and when completed, recently presented it to the international scientific community.

At this point, explained the research team’s coordinator, Riccardo Velasco, the project has sequenced five genome equivalents for a total of 2.5 billion nucleotides, which includes 99 percent of the plant. According to Velasco, “this is agriculture's equivalent to the first moonwalk. As of today, agriculture will never be the same".

The results of this project were made possible with the technical collaboration from the American company Myriad Genetics Inc. from Salt Lake City, which has developed sequencing of other genomes, among which human and rice, and which also developed ad hoc software for the Italian researchers. The director of Myriad, Mark Skolnick, who was present at the announcement of this latest breakthrough, reminded participants that he had once been a student of Luca Cavalli Sforza. He spoke of a “historic moment” for the improvement in the quality of grapevines that are currently cultivated, as well as the eventual creation of new varieties capable of adapting to the pedoclimactic characteristics of the territories. He hoped that at the next event he would be “giving a toast with a wine obtained from this research”.
The understanding of the biological mechanisms of the grape, added Francesco Salamini (researcher at the German Plank Institut and part of the scientific team at S. Michele all'Adige), will allow for better directed interventions for the defense of adversities from parasites, reducing the numbers and impact, and creating a politic of sustainable agriculture and respect for the environment.

The fine-tuning and assembling of the data is expected to be finished within a few months, at the latest by October, noted Istituto Agrario president, Giovanni Gius.

The president of the autonomous region of Trento, Lorenzo Dellai, after thanking the researchers, announced that once research had finished on the grape, financing would be made available for research on the apple genome.