Warming effects on grape organic acid metabolism

Abstract

This travel had three major objectives. The first was to participate at an international grapevine conference in La Serena Chile, where I gave a seminar outlining our current GWRDC-supported research progress. The second was to carry out a small research project in the lab of a collaborator in Dundee, Scotland, in order to advance an aspect of our current GWRDC-supported research programme through the use of a chromatography technique. The third was to interact with grapevine researchers at their host institutions in Chile, Spain and France, where I gave seminars and learned a new technique for grapevine leaf transformation.

Summary

The major objectives of this travel were three-fold. Firstly, to attend the 9th International Symposium on Grapevine Physiology and Biotechnology (ISGPB) in La Serena, Chile, to communicate results from our GWRDC-supported research. This objective was met. I gave a seminar at the symposium on Friday 26th April, dealing with the effect of elevated temperature on organic acid metabolism in grape berries. I also gained information from the research of prominent international grape and wine scientists. The second objective was to conduct a research project with a collaborator, Rob Hancock, at The James Hutton Institute in Dundee, Scotland. This objective was also met. In Dundee I used a chromatography technique to facilitate three aspects of our research: (i) confirm L-idonic acid as the reaction product of an enzyme of our interest and therefore provide evidence for the enzyme’s role in tartaric acid biosynthesis in grapes; (ii) measure metabolite levels in fruit lacking the tartaric acid biosynthesis gene, L-idonate dehydrogenase, and (iii) measure metabolite levels in grape berry samples that had been exposed to elevated temperature treatments and exhibited lower levels of malic acid, and in grape berries of various varieties differing in malic acid levels.