Low temperature is an important factor limiting plant growth. Most cultivars of Vitis vinifera L. are sensitive to low temperatures and are at risk of freezing injury or even plant death during winter. In this study, we analyzed the transcriptome of branches of dormant cv. Cabernet Sauvignon exposed to several low-temperature conditions to identify differentially expressed genes and determine their function based on Gene Ontology (GO) and Kyoto Encyclopedia of Genes and Genomes (KEGG)enrichment analyses. Our results indicated that exposure to subzero low temperatures resulted in damage to plant cell membranes and extravasation of intracellular electrolytes, and that this damage increased with decreasing temperature or increasing duration. The number of differential genes increased as the duration of stress increased, but most of the common differentially expressed genes reached their highest expression at 6 h of stress, indicating that 6 h may be a turning point for vines to tolerate extreme low temperatures. Several pathways play key roles in the response of Cabernet Sauvignon to low-temperature injury, namely: (1) the role of calcium/calmodulin-mediated signaling; (2) carbohydrate metabolism, including the hydrolysis of cell wall pectin and cellulose, decomposition of sucrose, synthesis of raffinose, and inhibition of glycolytic processes; (3) the synthesis of unsaturated fatty acids and metabolism of linolenic acid; and (4) the synthesis of secondary metabolites, especially flavonoids. In addition, pathogenesis-related protein may also play a role in plant cold resistance, but the mechanism is not yet clear. This study reveals possible pathways for the freezing response and leads to new insights into the molecular basis of the tolerance to low temperature in grapevine.

Due to the particularity of the continental monsoon climate in China, more than 90% of the wine grape cultivation areas require vines to be buried in winter for a burial period that can extend to half a year. Additionally, traditional vine cultivation practices can expose the surface of the soil during winter, easily leading to soil erosion. To meet the restrictive factors for viticulture in the Chinese cold climate zone, a new sustainable viticulture strategy called crawled cordon mode (CCM) has been developed. CCM includes crawled cordon training (CCT), physical methods of flower and fruit thinning, winter suspension of shoots, the use of a biodegradable liquid film, and covering of grass and branches for simplified management of vineyards. This article summarizes the specific implementation methods of the main measures of CCM and their significant effects on the quality of grapes and wine, ecological environment, and costs, and aims to provide inspiration for the study of sustainable and eco-friendly cultivation measures for vineyards in other cold climate zones.

Intraspecific recurrent selection in V. vinifera is an effective method for breeding of high quality, disease-, cold-, and drought-resistance grapes. Exploring the optimal treatment methods for grape (V. vinifera) seeds can help to accelerate the process of intraspecific recurrent selection and improve breeding efficiency. In this study, seeds of six V. vinifera varieties were used as experimental materials, and the germination and seedling formation characteristics were studied by single factor treatment and orthogonal compound treatment, respectively. To do this, stratification, chemical substances, beak cutting, and pre-germination treatments were tested, and the optimal treatment combination was determined for each variety. The results indicated that the optimal conditions obtained in the orthogonal experiments were not completely consistent with those in the single-factor experiments. Single factor experiment results demonstrated that two stratification methods (chilling gauze-storage and chilling sand-storage) and two pre-germination methods (pre-germination in petri dishes and pre-germination in a bean sprouter) vary in effectiveness for different varieties. gibberellin acid (GA₃) soaking and beak-cutting promote the germination and seedling rate of the tested varieties. Orthogonal test results demonstrate that, for Dunkelfelder and Cabernet Sauvignon, the optimal treatment combination was chilling sand-storage + GA₃ soaking seed + beak cutting + pre-germination in petri dishes. For Meili, the optimal treatment combination was chilling sand-storage + acetic acid (HAc) soaking seed + beak cutting + pre-germination in petri dishes. For Ecolly, the optimal treatment combination was chilling sand-storage + GA₃ soaking seed + beak cutting + pre-germination in a bean sprouter. For Garanior, the optimal treatment combination was chilling sand-storage + HAc soaking seed + no beak cutting + pre-germination in petri dishes. For Marselan, the optimal treatment combination was chilling gauze-storage + GA₃ soaking seed + beak cutting + pre-germination in a bean sprouter. This study identified the optimal conditions for seed germination and seedling formation of six grape varieties, which will facilitate future work to characterize the seed germination and seedling formation of seeds obtained by intraspecific hybridization of these varieties. This work also provides a reference for addressing problems of low seed germination rate and suboptimal seedling formation for better utilization of grape germplasms.

Given that the global winegrape planting area is 7.2 × 10⁶ hm², the potential for winegrape crop-mediated carbon capture and storage as an approach to reducing greenhouse gas emissions warranted further research. Herein, we employed an allometric model of various winegrape organs to assess biomass distributions, and we evaluated the carbon storage distribution characteristics associated with vineyard ecosystems in the Hongsibu District of Ningxia. We found that the total carbon storage of the Vitis vinifera ‘Cabernet Sauvignon’ vineyard ecosystem was 55.35 t·hm⁻², of which 43.12 t·hm⁻² came from the soil, while the remaining 12.23 t·hm⁻² was attributable to various vine components including leaves (1.85 t·hm⁻²), fruit (2.16 t·hm⁻²), canes (1.83 t·hm⁻²), perennial branches (2.62 t·hm⁻²), and roots (3.78 t·hm⁻²). Together, these results suggested that vineyards can serve as an effective carbon sink, with the majority of carbon being sequestered at the soil surface. Within the grapevines themselves, most carbon was stored in perennial organs including perennial branches and roots. Allometric equations based on simple and practical biomass and biometric measurements offer a means whereby grape-growers and government entities responsible for ecological management can better understand carbon distribution patterns associated with vineyards.

Land desertification is a global environmental problem, leading to the deterioration of the ecological environment and is an issue that threatens humans. Hongsibu, located in Ningxia, northwest China, is a semi-desert area with the largest domestic single-site ecological resettlement area for poverty alleviation based on the wine industry. Here, we quantified the value of the ecosystem services of the wine industry in Hongsibu and used the analytic hierarchy process (AHP) to quantitatively evaluate the comprehensive benefits of the wine industry for resolving desertification. We found that winegrapes significantly increase vegetation cover, while significantly decreasing blowing sand and generating a total annual value of ecosystem services of 6.13× 10⁸ RMB. The evaluation score of the comprehensive benefits is 81.85%, with grape growers and chateaus obtaining large economic benefits from the wine industry. In conclusion, the wine industry’s development not only enhances the economic level of grape growers but significantly resolves desertification in impoverished areas—thus alleviating poverty and land degradation, contributing to sustainable development. Therefore, this may be an effective strategy for sustainable development in other parts of the world.

With the extreme changes of the global climate, winter freezing injury has become an important limiting factor for the development of the global grape industry. Therefore, there is a significant need for the screening of cold-resistant wine grape germplasms and cold regionalization for cold-resistant breeding and the development of grapevine cultivation in cold regions. In this study, the low-temperature half-lethal temperature (LT₅₀) values were determined for the annual dormant branches of 124 wine grape germplasms (V. vinifera) to evaluate their cold resistance. The LT₅₀ values of the 124 tested germplasms ranged from −22.01 °C to −13.18 °C, with six cold-resistant germplasms below −20 °C. Based on the LT₅₀ values, the 124 germplasms were clustered into four types, with cold resistance from strong to weak in the order of type Ⅱ > type Ⅰ > type Ⅳ > type Ⅲ, corresponding to the four cold hardiness zones. Zones 1, 2, 3, and 4 included 6, 22, 68, and 28 germplasms, respectively, with decreasing cold resistance. The number of germplasms in different hardiness zones followed a normal distribution, with the most in zone 3. In Type Ⅱ, the fruit skin color of germplasms was positively correlated with cold hardiness, while the temperature of origin was negatively correlated with cold hardiness. The average LT₅₀ of germplasms in different origin regions ranged from −17.44 °C to −16.26 °C, with differences among some regions. The cold regionalization analysis resulted in the distribution of 124 germplasms in four temperature regions in China with six germplasms in region A (−22 °C ≤ LT₅₀ ≤ −20 °C), 30 germplasms in region B (−20°C ≤ LT₅₀ ≤ −18°C), 71 germplasms in region C (−18 °C ≤ LT₅₀ ≤ −15 °C), and 17 germplasms in region D (−15 °C ≤ LT₅₀ ≤ −13 °C). Strong cold-resistant wine grape germplasms (V. vinifera) were identified, and these could be used as parental material for cold-resistant breeding. In some areas in China, soil-burial over-wintering strategies are used, but our results suggest that some wine grapes could be cultivated without requiring winter burial during overwintering. The results of this study should provide guidance for the selection of promising strains for cold-resistant breeding for expanded cultivation of improved varieties for wine grape production in China.