Fungi of grapes

Abstract

In this chapter fungi and fungus-like pathogens colonizing grapevine clusters are described which cause berry decay and may influence the quality of must and wine by producing off-flavour or mycotoxins. For each organism the symptoms and the effect on berry quality is explained. The fungi affecting grapevine berries and clusters belongs to distinct taxonomical groups and differ in the life style partially significant. Some fungi are biotrophic and infect exclusively living tissue such as leaves, clusters and young berries, others have a necrotrophic life style and decompose the host tissue encymatically for nutrients uptake. The most of moulds causing off-flavor and producing mycotoxins are saprophytes which use leaking sugar the berries as a carbon source. The biological characteristics are of a great diversity within the fungi and fungus-like organisms, therefore each taxon is described separately. Only few pathogens are prevalent world-wide and may occurred in the majority of years, others are locally distributed ore occur under specific weather-conditions. Altogether the importance of fungi for the wine quality is considerably and all measures have to be taken to minimize the incidence of these berry diseases. © 2009 Springer-Verlag Berlin Heidelberg. All rights reserved.