Journal Article

Towards a scientific interpretation of the terroir concept: plasticity of the grape berry metabolome

Commisso, Mauro, Zenoni, Sara, Pezzotti, Mario, Ceoldo, Stefania, Tornielli, Giovanni Battista, Guzzo, Flavia, Herderich, Markus, Stocchero, Matteo, Siebert, Tracey E., Dal Santo, Silvia, Anesi, Andrea

2015

Overview

Background The definition of the terroir concept is one of the most debated issues in oenology and viticulture. The dynamic interaction among diverse factors including the environment, the grapevine plant and the imposed viticultural techniques means that the wine produced in a given terroir is unique. However, there is an increasing interest to define and quantify the contribution of individual factors to a specific terroir objectively. Here, we characterized the metabolome and transcriptome of berries from a single clone of the Corvina variety cultivated in seven different vineyards, located in three macrozones, over a 3-year trial period. Results To overcome the anticipated strong vintage effect, we developed statistical tools that allowed us to identify distinct terroir signatures in the metabolic composition of berries from each macrozone, and from different vineyards within each macrozone. We also identified non-volatile and volatile components of the metabolome which are more plastic and therefore respond differently to terroir diversity. We observed some relationships between the plasticity of the metabolome and transcriptome, allowing a multifaceted scientific interpretation of the terroir concept. Conclusions Our experiments with a single Corvina clone in different vineyards have revealed the existence of a clear terroir -specific effect on the transcriptome and metabolome which persists over several vintages and allows each vineyard to be characterized by the unique profile of specific metabolites.

• Publisher: BioMed Central,BioMed Central Ltd,Springer Nature B.V
• Subject: Agriculture / Biomedical and Life Sciences / Chemical properties / Environmental aspects / Fruit - genetics / Fruit - metabolism / Fruits / Gene-Environment Interaction / Genetics and crop biotechnology / grapes / Instrument industry / Life Sciences / Metabolites / Metabolome / Molecular Sequence Data / Plant Proteins - chemistry / Plant Proteins - genetics / Plant Proteins - metabolism / Plant Sciences / Plasticity / Research Article / Sequence Analysis, Protein / small fruits / transcriptome / Tree Biology / Vineyards / Viticulture / Vitis - genetics / Vitis - metabolism / Vitis vinifera / volatile compounds / winemaking / Wines