Improvement of chemical quality index of wines from interspecific hybrids

Supervisor : Urska Vrhovsek

Powdery mildew and downy mildew are the major pathogens of vineyards in Europe. Today, their control requires frequent treatments with large amount of pesticides with negative effects on health and environment. Therefore, these problems have stimulated research into resistant interspecific hybrids. Indeed, these varieties with increased resistance to fungi representing the most promising strategy to control diseases.
The aim of this project is to study a selection of interspecific hybrids in order to identify the most representative aspects of their composition and measure their positive and negative traits. A comprehensive scientific study will be produced to classify grapes and wines by their secondary plant metabolite profile.

Biography and contacts

Silvia Ruocco was born in 1988 in Salerno (Italy). She graduated in Food and Agricultural Biotechnology (110/110 cum laude) in 2011 and in Agricultural Biotechnology (110/110 cum laude) in 2013 at the Federico II University of Naples (Italy). In 2014 she started the doctoral course at the PhD school “Agriculture Science and Biotechnology” at the University of Udine in collaboration with Edmund Mach Foundation in San Michele all’Adige (Italy).