Trial vineyard has 4000 plants grown in lab

Scientists are researching how "jumping genes" can be used to develop more robust pinot noir grapes that still have an iconic New Zealand flavour.

Dr Ross Bicknell and Dr Philippa Barrell from Plant and Food Research are leading the project, which involves developing new genetic variants of pinot noir grapes from a single cell.

The goal is to help our wine industry address challenges such as high temperatures and increased pressure from pests and diseases due to changing climate, Dr Bicknell says.

"What we're trying to do is generate different clones that are more suited to our environment and our needs, and then make those available to the industry so we can provide more diversity and security."

To clone the cells, they use a small sequence of DNA known as transposons or "jumping genes" to disrupt the gene and change how it behaves.

A classic example of this process in action is the creation of the nectarines, essentially a peach which has had the "hairy" gene disrupted.

It took a few years to learn how to successfully grow and develop the new plants in laboratory conditions, Dr Bicknell says.

"A single cell is an incredibly small and delicate thing. To keep that alive, and to treat it and then to generate an entire plant from it was a very large challenge."

Planting out thousands of unique grapevines was the next step. This started in 2015 in a sheep paddock behind Lincoln University.

Now it's an established vineyard with each row of leafy vines bookmarked with a rose bush.

This year, grapes from selected plants with particular character traits, are being made into small batches of wine for testing, says scientist Dr Philippa Barrell.

"We'll be asking our very talented chemists to have a look and see how they might be different to a normal pinot noir."

Even though it will still take a number of years to fully understand how the plants are different and how they grow, Dr Barrell says she's proud of the results achieved so far.

"We're really lucky in the sense that we see the process from the start to the end and it's a really neat feeling to look down this row and say, yes, we did this!"