The French-Italian Public Consortium for Grapevine Genome Characterization has released the grapevine genome sequence of Pinot Noir, a red wine grape variety which lend their flavour to both Burgundy and Champagne wines.

The finished sequence shows a huge expanse of terpene and tannin genes compared with other plant genomes studied so far, says team member Jean Weissenbach, who is based at Genoscope. The strain studied contains 70-80 terpene genes alone, he says. Studying these could lead to new styles to tickle the palate, Weissenbach suggests. "We may be able to find combinations of terpene genes which could provide new flavours," he says.

The grape genome sequence, featured in an advanced online publication of Nature (doi:10.1038/nature06148), revelas that "grapevine genome has not undergone recent genome duplication, thus enabling the discovery of ancestral traits and features of the genetic organization of flowering plants. This analysis reveals the contribution of three ancestral genomes to the grapevine haploid content."

This is the fourth sequence produced for a flowering plant and the first for a fruit crop