The Institute of Grapevine and Wine Sciences (ICVV) will participate in the project "Rhizobiome improvement to mitigate grapevine root diseases under drought stress (RHIZOIMPROVE)", funded by the State Plan for Scientific, Technical, and Innovation Research through the Spanish State Research Agency under the 2023 Knowledge Generation Projects call.
This project, coordinated by Amaia Nogales (Institut de Recerca i Tecnologia Agroalimentàries, IRTA), involves three institutions: IRTA, Universitat Politècnica de València (UPV), and ICVV. The project will run for three years (01/09/2024 – 31/08/2027) and has a total funding of €462,500, of which €143,750 corresponds to the subproject led by Dr. David Gramaje, principal investigator at ICVV.
Project Objectives
RHIZOIMPROVE aims to investigate how the presence of root pathogens and drought stress affect the grapevine holobiont, a crop of great economic importance globally and especially in Spain. Viticulture faces increasing challenges due to climate change, with drought as one of the main threats, impacting grapevine quality, yield, and resistance to soil pathogens.
The project focuses on two key fungal diseases affecting the root system:
• Black Foot Disease (BFD)
• White Root Rot Disease (WRRD)
While previous studies suggest that BFD is more frequent in humid soils and WRRD is aggravated under drought conditions, further research is needed to understand these patterns, especially considering the increasing use of irrigation in vineyards.
RHIZOIMPROVE will address these challenges by developing sustainable strategies based on:
✔️ Selection of rootstocks with greater tolerance to pathogens and drought stress.
✔️ Enhancing the rhizobiome through the introduction of beneficial fungi and root exudate metabolites.
✔️ Assessing the pathogen-symbiont balance in the rhizosphere to improve soil health.
The project will place particular emphasis on the role of arbuscular mycorrhizal fungi and dark septate endophytes, both known to improve plant stress tolerance.
Expected Impact
RHIZOIMPROVE will provide new sustainable strategies to increase grapevine resistance to drought and soil-borne diseases, with a global impact. The project’s results will contribute to advances in plant pathology, soil microbiology, and plant physiology, generating new knowledge on:
- Identification of drought- and disease-resistant rootstocks.
- Root exudation dynamics and their role in stress tolerance.
- New applications of beneficial microorganisms to enhance grapevine resilience.
- Microbial indicators for soil health, facilitating the development of pathogen-suppressive soils.
The project's findings will be published in high-impact (Q1) open-access scientific journals and presented at international conferences. Additionally, RHIZOIMPROVE will establish an international collaboration network, participating in COST Actions (MiCropBiomes and FoodWaStop) and contributing to the development of future European projects on viticulture, microbiomes, and plant pathology.
For more information, contact: David Gramaje (david.gramaje@icvv.es)
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