A global microbiome survey of vineyard soils highlights the microbial dimension of viticultural terroirs

• Published in: Communications biology 2022-03, Vol.5 (1), p.241-9, Article 241
• Main Authors: Gobbi, Alex, Acedo, Alberto, Imam, Nabeel, Santini, Rui G., Ortiz-Álvarez, Rüdiger, Ellegaard-Jensen, Lea, Belda, Ignacio, Hansen, Lars H.
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Subjects: 45/23; 631/158/852; 631/158/855; 631/326/2565/855; Biodiversity; Biology; Biomedical and Life Sciences; Farms; Fungi - genetics; Life Sciences; Microbiomes; Microbiota; Prediction models; Prokaryotes; Soil; Soil microorganisms; Vineyards; Wine; Wineries & vineyards
• ISSN: 2399-3642; 2399-3642
• DOI: 10.1038/s42003-022-03202-5

The microbial biodiversity found in different vitivinicultural regions is an important determinant of wine terroir . It should be studied and preserved, although it may, in the future, be subjected to manipulation by precision agriculture and oenology. Here, we conducted a global survey of vineyards’ soil microbial communities. We analysed soil samples from 200 vineyards on four continents to establish the basis for the development of a vineyard soil microbiome’s map, representing microbial biogeographical patterns on a global scale. This study describes vineyard microbial communities worldwide and establishes links between vineyard locations and microbial biodiversity on different scales: between continents, countries, and between different regions within the same country. Climate data correlates with fungal alpha diversity but not with prokaryotes alpha diversity, while spatial distance, on a global and national scale, is the main variable explaining beta-diversity in fungal and prokaryotes communities. Proteobacteria , Actinobacteria and Acidobacteria phyla, and Archaea genus Nitrososphaera dominate prokaryotic communities in soil samples while the overall fungal community is dominated by the genera Solicoccozyma, Mortierella and Alternaria . Finally, we used microbiome data to develop a predictive model based on random forest analyses to discriminate between microbial patterns and to predict the geographical source of the samples with reasonable precision. A global analysis of vineyard soil microbial diversity provides insights into the biogeographical patterns that characterize wine regions worldwide, capturing the microbial dimension of viticultural terroirs .