- The future of wine-making depends on developing new varieties of grape, scientists say - and maps of the grape genome can help provide them.
From the BBC:
Disease is a constant issue for growers; but new regulations are likely to curb the use of chemical treatments.
US researchers have made genome maps of more than 1,000 vine samples.
Writing in Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences (PNAS), they say this type of data plots the way to disease-resistant grape varieties.
The grape varieties whose wine we like to drink - merlot, chardonnay, semillon, riesling and the rest - have mainly been developed from one species, Vitis vinifera vinifera.
It was probably "domesticated" about 5,000 years ago, in or close to what is now Turkey.
