Editorial: Advances in grapevine genetic improvement: Towards high quality, sustainable grape production

Grapevine (Vitis vinifera ssp. vinifera) is the fruit crop with the largest economic value worldwide, considering its derived products. However, emerging climate change-derived threats along with established pathogens compromise the sustainability of traditional viticultural systems. Grapevine genetic improvement is critical to face this situation, as well as to adapt to novel market needs and regulatory frameworks. Current breeding and selection programs focus on the obtention and exploitation of cultivars combining high quality fruit traits, adequate yield, and some level of resistance to major biotic and abiotic stressors. To this aim, two main activities are conducted: (i) the screening of today’s standing Vitis diversity (Wolkovich et al., 2018), and (ii) the generation of individuals gathering favorable traits (Töpfer and Trapp, 2022). Among the tools facilitating the success of these activities, the identification of genotypes harboring favorable alleles, and the knowledge on the underlying genomic regions and gene variants is basic to speed up current and future grapevine improvement activities