Grapes are currently grown on 3.6 Million ha in Europe (EU 25) and amount to a total yearly production of app.185 Million hl wine production (2004) in the European Union (OIV 2004). Europe is also an important producer of table grapes with Italy, Spain and Greece producing close to 2 Million tons of the total 12 Million tons world production in 2004 (USDA 2004). The concerns of consumers for improved food quality produced with environmentally safe and sustainable agriculture demands the development of cultivars of table- and wine grapes improved in natural pathogen resistance and fruit quality to reduce the extensive use of fungicides and ensure high-quality production. Demand of viticulturists for quality varieties adapted to changing environmental conditions must be anticipated in the context of global climatic changes.
Breeding of grapevines is a long-lasting task and urgently requests novel tools to achieve these aims efficiently. The fundamental goal of this proposal is to identify the gene sequences and mutations responsible for phenotypic variation of resistance and berry quality traits in grapevine through the combination of genomic, functional genomic, metabolomic and quantitative genetical methods. It will link the Europan research activities in this area and construct a common platform for compilation and exploitation of Vitis phenotypic, metabolomic, transcriptomic and genetic/genomic data.