What is it about?

Originally launched as approach to rescue the European Wild Grapevine, (Vitis sylvestris), the ancestor of our domesticated Grapevine, we collected twigs of the last Mohicains that had survived in the alluvial forests of the Upper Rhine valley. On request of the Federal Ministry of Agriculture, these plants were then propagated in the Botanic Garden and, in cooperation with the local authorities for Nature Protection, we resettled them in appropriate sites in the wild, for instance, in parts of the river landscape that had been renatured. Over the years, our collection grew and hosts meanwhile the entire genetic diversity for this species that has remained in Germany. more.... Protect and Valorise: When we investigated those wild grapevines in more detail, we found that many of them show resilience against diseases, but also the consequences of climate change. The search for the causes of this resilience not only helped us to understand the Immune System of Grapevine, more deeply, but also to identify novel gene variants that participate in this resilience. In cooperation with Dr. Wei Chen from the Chinese Academy of Sciences we were able to decipher the genomes of these plants and derive exciting insights into Evolution and Domestication History of this important crop plant. On that base, we developed a novel tool, the genome database GrapeKIT, where meanwhile already a few hundreds of genomes have been compiled – including wild species, but also ancient landraces, commercially relevant varieties, but also the novel PiWi (Pilz-Widerstandsfähig, for fungal resistance) varieties.  For any gene of interest, we can search in the database, what variants Nature has to offer and then, after a walk into the garden, pick the respective plant to isolate this gene for further research. However, we can also use these grapes and our knowledge about them to breed novel varieties that can cope better with the challenges of climate change or emerging diseases.

Immune System of Grapevine

Grapevine is very susceptible to pathogens requiring intense plant protection. Most of these pathogens, such as Plasmopara viticola, the cause of Downy Mildew have co-evolved with wild grapevine species in North America. These wild species developed a specific form of immunity, termed Effector-Triggered-Immunity (ETI) to combat the pathogen. When these diseases reached Europe, they met a naive host, not able to deploy ETI. The consequences were catastrophic. Since then, viticulture has turned into a fungicide junkie - around 70% of European fungicide consumption goes into viticulture that can, thus, be considered as a victim of globalisation. However, we can make use of globalisation to strengthen immunity. Since many years we explore and develop the natural diversity of wild grapevines from all over the world to understand the immune system of grapevine in more detail. In addition to the highly specific ETI, there is an ancient form of basal immunity that was progressively lost during domestication. The European Wild Grapevine still harbours this type of immunity and can accumulate swiftly and efficiently so-called stilbenes, defence compounds that can suppress fungal spread (more...). Also Chinese wild Grapevines that had gene flow with European species until a few thousand years ago, can deploy this basal immunity (more...). This basal immunity is now very promising against novel fungal diseases that emerge in consequence of global climate change (more...). Meanwhile, we know that they can form efficient antifungal derivatives of stilbene (more...)

The Origin of Grapevine

Four years of hard work, almost 4000 genomes - the fruit of this effort has now been published in Science. The Wild Grapevine Collection of the KIT had an important role here. It could be shown that Grapevine was domesticated twice independently, once in the Caucasus to produce wine, a second time in the Near East to get table grapes. During its migration to the West, there were numerous love affairs with local wild grapevines, giving rise to the large diversity of grapevines. This project joined people from 16 countries, despite sometimes difficult political circumstances and allows a deep look into the complex history of this crop plant that not only founded civilisations, but was also one of the first globally traded goods, breaching the borders of geography, language, and religion. The treasure of knowledge generated in this project has not even been scratched - during the time, when grapevine, by an interplay between climatic disruptions and human migration, conquered many regions, it collected genes that help to cope with adverse conditions. These genes can help now to safeguard viticulture against the consequences of climate change - this is exactly, what we do now in our Interreg Upper Rhine project Kliwiresse. Seminar as part of the Saturday University Freiburg.

Science article

Interview with the Washington Post

Press release by the KIT

Youtube on the impact of the project for the region