According to the World Economic Forum and the European Union’s Biodiversity Strategy for 2030, biodiversity loss and ecosystem collapse are major threats facing humanity in the next decade. Massive consumption of chemical pesticides in agriculture is a significant contributing factor. Viticulture ranks high among the crops that depend on a massive consumption of chemical pesticides, consuming approximately sixty percent of the fungicides applied in the EU, making it a priority target for reducing the use of chemical plant protection products. At the same time, grapevine is economically and culturally important in the EU, with wine and wine-based products being among the top 3 EU agri-food sectors. Recent advances and new perspectives in grapevine breeding have opened the possibility for GrapeBreed4IPM to address the reduction of fungicides and preserve biodiversity. Lessons learned from past experience in viticulture have shown that success in improving sustainability relies on global involvement of all actors. Therefore, we brought together the top European research groups in grapevine breeding and involved different stakeholders along the grapevine industry value chain in a multi-actor and co-design approach to produce the best insights for maximum impact. The project will develop grapevine varieties with resistance to relevant diseases, adapted to local environmental and pedoclimatic conditions, and with the goal of reducing reliance on chemical pesticides. In addition, the project will provide farmers, winegrowers and advisers with best practices and guidelines for integrated pest management, adapted to disease-resistant varieties, as ingredients for their largest possible adoption and leading to a long-awaited more environmentally friendly and sustainable viticulture in Europe. The project’s outcomes will support evolution of the grapevine market to meet regulatory requirements and consumer expectations, a market that is expected to reach nearly EUR 204 billion by 2025.

The BIOBESTicide project will validate and demonstrate the production of an effective and cost-efficient biopesticide. The demonstration will be based on an innovative bio-based value chain starting from the valorisation of sustainable biomasses, i.e. beet pulp and sugar molasses and will exploit the properties of the oomycete Pythium oligandrum strain I-5180 to increase natural plant defenses, to produce an highly effective and eco-friendly biopesticide solution for vine plants protection. GREENCELL, the project coordinator, has developed, at laboratory level (TRL4), an effective method to biocontrol one of the major causes of worldwide vineyards destruction, the Grapevine Trunk Diseases (GTDs). The protection system is based on the oomycete Pythium oligandrum strain I-5180 that, at applied at optimal time and concentration, colonises the root of vines and stimulates the natural plant defences against GTDs, providing a protection that ranges between 40% and 60%. BIOBESTicide project will respond to the increasing demands for innovative solutions for crop protection agents, transferring the technology to a DEMO Plant able to produce more than 10 T of a high-quality oomycete-based biopesticide product per year (TRL7). The BIOBESTicide project will validate the efficiency of the formulated product on vineyards of different geographical areas. To assure the safety of products under both health and environmental points of view, a full and complete approval dossier for Pythium oligandrum strain I-5180 will be submitted in all the European countries. A Life Cycle Sustainability Assessment (LCSA) will be conducted to assess the environmental, economic and social impacts of the developed products. The adoption of the effective and cost-efficient biopesticide will have significant impacts with a potential ROI of 30 % in just 5 years and a total EBITDA of more than € 6,400,000.

Certain viral diseases of the vine including the FanLeaf (FL) or leafroll are likely to affect the sustainability of many vineyards around the world. Some areas are literally stricken, as evidenced by the studies of the "vine decline national plan" (www.plan-deperissement-vigne.fr). In Champagne, for example, FL's disease is considered to be the main concern, and global losses of several billion euros are estimated. Alas, unlike the fungal diseases (downy mildew, powdery mildew, ...) for which resistance genes have been identified and are now exploited to fight against these diseases as a replacement for pesticides, no gene for antiviral resistance in the genetic heritage of the vine is known. It is therefore impossible to answer the problem of vine diseases by conventional genetic approaches. Global and European viticulture in particular is facing a stalemate in antiviral control. Biotechnology lab of Vine Viruses led by Christophe Ritzenthaler (CR) has recently shown that it is possible to confer antiviral resistance to grapevine fanleaf virus (GFLV), the main agent. of FL disease, using Nanobodies (Nbs) derived from immunoglobulins of camelids. On the same principle, Nbs possessing antiviral activity against other major vine viruses, including Arabis mosaic virus (ArMV), also at the origin of FL, have been isolated and characterized (CR). In addition, studies within the IBMP (CR and Pascal Genschik teams) on the search for cellular partners involved in the replication of several plant viruses have made it possible to identify proteins of the Arabidopsis DRB family possessing broad-spectrum (confidential) antiviral activity. All of this work, which opens up new prospects for the fight against FL and possibly against other vine viruses, is at the origin of the desired partnership between Mercier group (industrial partner), world leader in the viticultural nursery. , and CNRS-IBMP for the creation of the LabCom CleanStem. The purpose of CleanStem will be to pool the scientific know-how developed at IBMP (virology, genetics, etc.) in search of antiviral factors and Mercier's international expertise in vegetative propagation, transformation, grafting and commercialization of grapevine. The main purpose of this marriage of reason is twofold. The commercial purpose of CleanStem will be the creation and marketing of new varieties of elite vines resistant to viruses. In a very active international environment, this will give Mercier a major competitive advantage and thus resolve the technological stalemate in antiviral control. The scientific and academic goal of CleanStem will be to lead to the creation of an internationally recognized research center in the field of viral diseases. By doing so, it will improve the visibility and attractiveness of the IBMP as a whole and over the long term. The priority of CleanStem will be the CN virus resistance of the vine but may spread to other major diseases. To do this, CleanStem's activities will be deployed according to three axes detailed in the roadmap (§3). Axis 1 (TRL5-6) will focus on conventional biotechnological exploitation by transgenesis of Nbs. Axis 2 (TRL3-4) will be devoted to the characterization of the antiviral activity of Arabidopsis and grapevine DRBs and their so-called new generation or green biotechnology exploitation (CRISPR / Cas). Finally, the more exploratory axis 3 (TRL2-3) will be devoted to the search for new viral restriction factors directly in the vineyard, in the more distant perspective - beyond the operational phase of the LabCom - of their exploitation by classical genetics. .