Grapevine is one of the most important fruit crops in the world for its economic impact. Its fruit is used either fresh or, once fermented, for production of wine or distillates. Italy, together with France, is the largest wine producer world-wide and the Trentino province produces about 8 millions bottles/year of sparkling wine “Metodo classico” (Champagne method), about 40% of the total Italian production.

To control berry ripening, and at the end fruit quality, we started a project aiming to understand the role of the phytohormone ethylene and the molecular events controlled by it in the berry ripening process. An important role in the ethylene-mediated cascade of regulation seems to be played by the transcription factor VvERF045 which likely controls ripening associated processes such as phenolics biosynthesis (aroma and colour compounds) as well as the morphology and the waxes of the epidermis.

Here, we would like to find the transcriptional regulatory network of which VvERF045 is part of.

If you see the text 'vv_erf045' inside a workunit name, just read the first message of this thread.