Bioinformational trends in grape and wine biotechnology

Abstract

The creative destruction caused by the coronavirus pandemic is yielding immense opportunity for collaborative innovation networks. The confluence of biosciences, information sciences, and the engineering of biology, is unveiling promising bioinformational futures for a vibrant and sustainable bioeconomy. Bioinformational engineering, underpinned by DNA reading, writing, and editing technologies, has become a beacon of opportunity in a world paralysed by uncertainty. This article draws on lessons from the current pandemic and previous agricultural blights, and explores bioinformational research directions aimed at future-proofing the grape and wine industry against biological shocks from global blights and climate change. The shock and awe of the pandemic's creative destructionThe years of global pandemic outbreaks, 1346, 1918, and 2020, loom large in history because these low-probability, high-impact disasters have devastating impacts on people's lives with tranquilising effects on society as a whole. In this regard, the 2020 coronavirus outbreak was no less damaging than previous once-in-a-century pandemics, global blights (see Glossary), and other catastrophes. This paper explores the future of grape and wine biotechnology with future global biological shocks in mind. These shocks include both the potential for global blights but also the disruptive potential of climate change. It is important to note that these two shocks combine in a layered manner; temperature change combined with existing land use patterns can contribute to the likelihood of a new global blight emerging. COVID-19 exemplifies the power of a global biological shock. The virus has infected millions of people and reset the trajectory of macro political, economic, sociological, technological, legal, and environmental (PESTLE) forces that shape the modern world. Such powerful forces are of course not solely the province of human biological shocks, and global blights harbour similar levels of disruptive potential. This paper explores the emerging science and technologies that might mitigate the risks of a global blight in the grape and wine sector. HighlightsUncertainty caused by pandemics, global blights, and climate change, tends to heighten the focus on how biotechnological advances can mitigate challenges to public safety, cyberbio resilience, environmental sustainability, and bioeconomic security.Convergence of cyberbio technologies and high-throughput automation in biofoundries offers future-shaping bioinformational engineering opportunities with transformational potential to the wine industry.Consumer preferences, biosecurity, and bioethical considerations, must guide research directions and adoption of new bioinformational engineering technologies at the levels of both problem selection and experimental design.

Visualizing the next frontiers in wine yeast research

“…The purpose of this article is to acknowledge the complex uncertainties of our times while anticipating which technological areas appear to offer the potential for transformative change in the wine industry over the next couple of decades. More specifically, it is proposed that the next frontiers in wine yeast research might be spurred by the convergence of bioinformational engineering and biodesign technologies (Dixon et al 2020 , 2021a , b ). A total of four specific future-focussed research concepts are explored in this article: the construction of fully synthetic yeast genomes, including minimal genomes; supernumerary pan-genome neochromosomes; synthetic metagenomes; and synthetic yeast communities.…”

“…Other valuable additions to a synthetic multiplexed yeast consortium are whole-cell biosensors and controllers (Williams et al 2016 ). The biosensor cells will sense fermentation conditions inside the winemaking vessel and transmit information from ongoing fermentation back to the winemaker so that adjustments can be made as needed (Dixon et al 2021b ). Alternatively, in self-regulating synthetic consortia, the biosensing yeast cells can relay information to controller cells (Walker and Pretorius 2022 ).…”

Universal Transceivers: Opportunities and Future Directions for the Internet of Everything (IoE)

“…On the other hand, with the emergence of IoBNT, research efforts are increasingly focused on bridging conventional modalities, e.g., optical, magnetic and electrical, with the unconventional carriers of information such as molecules (Liu et al, 2017b;Grebenstein et al, 2019;VanArsdale et al, 2020). In this direction, proposed transduction methods are mainly based on synthetic biology products and tools, such as whole cell biosensors and optogenetic methods (Dixon et al, 2021). However, entirely biological nature of these transduction methods limits their application range to in vivo environments.…”

Translational profile of coding and non-coding RNAs revealed by genome wide profiling of ribosome footprints in grapevine

“…Grapevine is an important fruit tree grown worldwide and is popular for its high nutrition and good color, aroma and taste. According to the latest data from 2021 released by the International Organization of Grapes and Wine (OIV), the planting area of grapevine has already reached 783,000 hectares in China ( Dixon et al., 2022 ), and there is high demand for fresh and wine grapes in the fruit market. Therefore, there is a need to improve the yield and quality of grapevines for increased economic benefits ( Zhou et al., 2022 ).…”