The Department of Economic Development and Competitiveness of the Basque Government, within the SAIOTEK 2013 call, awarded us last week with a grant for a new study. This call aims to finance those research projects of the Scientific-Technological Agents from the Basque Network of Science, Technology and Innovation.

 The funded project is part of our research line focused on metagenomics. The final objective is to define the core of grapevine-associated bacteria and to discern the main factors determining it. With this purposes, we will establish the bacterial community associated to three varieties of vines traditionally used to produce “Txakoli” wine, and to compare it with the varieties “Riesling” and “Merlot”. We will also determine the impact of heavy metals on this bacterial diversity, and establish the soil bacteria succession when transforming a meadow into a vineyard. We expect that results will help the development of biofertilizers or biological control agents.

 This project is developing under the co-supervision of our PhD student Alba Susaeta by Dr. Andone Estonba (UPV/EHU) and Dr. Marisol Goñi from the University of Pau et Pays de l’Adour (UPPA) and with the collaboration of Dr. Alberto de Diego from the Department of Analytical Chemistry of UPV/EHU. “Gorka Izaguirre” wine cellar (http://www.azurmendi.biz/enoturismo-vizcaya.php), the main company interested in the achievement of this project, helped us promoting it.