Methyl jasmonate (MeJ), an elicitor able to trigger plant defence responses, is a natural and clean alternative to the use of hazardous pesticides. However, the efficient application of MeJ in...

No abstract

Nitrogen composition on grapevines has a direct effect on the quality of wines since it contributes to develop certain volatile compounds and assists in the correct kinetics of alcoholic fermentation. Several strategies can be used to ensure nitrogen content in grapes and one of them could be the use of elicitors such as methyl jasmonate. The use of this elicitor has been proven to be efficient in the production of secondary metabolites which increases the quality of wines, but its use also has some drawbacks such as its low water solubility, high volatility, and its expensive cost. This study observes the impact on the amino acid and ammonium composition of must and wine of Monastrell grapes that have been treated with methyl jasmonate (MeJ) and methyl jasmonate n-doped calcium phosphate nanoparticles (MeJ-ACP). The first objective of this study was to compare the effect of these treatments to determine if the nitrogenous composition of the berries and wines increased. The second aim was to determine if the nanoparticle treatments showed similar effects to conventional treatments so that the ones which are more efficient and sustainable from an agricultural point of view can be selected. The results showed how both treatments increased amino acid composition in grapes and wines during two consecutive seasons and as well as the use of MeJ-ACP showed better results compared to MeJ despite using less quantity (1 mM compared to 10 mM typically). So, this application form of MeJ could be used as an alternative in order to carry out a more efficient and sustainable agriculture.

Self-assembled peptides and proteins have turned out to be excellent templates for the growth of inorganic minerals trying to emulate natural biomineralization processes. Doing this, researchers have developed complex sophisticate...

The effect produced by the application of methyl jasmonate (MeJA) in vineyards is clear, but this is a product that, despite its efficiency, is expensive, volatile and difficult to dissolve. Regarding increasing the MeJA use efficiency, new forms of application are proposed in this article, such as the use of calcium phosphate nanoparticles with two different morphologies: amorphous (ACP) and crystalline (Ap). In addition, few of the studies addressed so far have assessed MeJA’s effect during the ripening period of the grapes. As a result of this, in this article, we evaluated/studied for first time the effect of the different MeJA formats on the phenolic composition of the grape during the ripening period. The results showed small differences between the two morphologies of the nanoparticles, which promoted a significant a delay in the sugar accumulation and an increase in the different phenolic compounds compared to the control. Such improvements were not as significant as those induced by the conventional MeJA treatment. However, it is remarkable that when the nanoparticles were applied, we used a concentration 10 times lower than when it is used conventionally. Therefore, these findings revealed that both types of calcium phosphate nanoparticles are potential MeJA nanocarriers allowing for the increase in the quality of the grapes at the time of harvest in a more sustainable way, although future studies must be carried out in order to optimise the concentration with which these nanoparticles are doped.