Grapes is extremely economically important fruit crop that is consumed worldwide.
Grapes do not only possess intrinsic nutritional value, but they are also valuable due to the ever growing wine market. In this regard, Europe is a big contributor to the world’s wine market, accounting for 65 % of the global production, with this industry also playing a major role in the Portuguese national economy, where an increase in grape harvesting was observed in 2019 (+7.6 %).
Grapes are also a model of non-climacteric fruit ripening. Additionally, grapes (Vitis vinifera) are affected by three main fungal diseases: powdery mildew, downy mildew, and grey mould.
We are interested in the establishment of putative models of grape ripening and grape- pathogen interaction based on omics and how they vary among grapevine cultivars.