Italian Agriculture Minister Paolo De Castro on Friday praised Italian and French researchers for successfully mapping the grape vine genome.
"This is a great achievement in the field of plant biology. The first analysis of a grape vine's genome can now be applied to developing ones which are resistant to disease, reducing the need to use chemical pesticides," the minister said.
Italy and France signed an agreement in Paris in August 2005 to carry out a six-millon-euro joint research program into a vine's genome.
The final aim of the project is to boost the quality of wines, protecting them from pests and making them better for consumers' health.
The results of the joint Italo-French project were published in the latest edition of the magazine Nature.
The project involved researchers from various Italian universities working under a national consortium and the Institute for Applied Genomics (IGA).
The French researchers came from the national Genoscope center and the Institute National per Recherche Agronomique (National Institute for Agronomic Research).
According to project chief Enrico Pe', from the University of Milan, the scheme did not involve genetically modified organisms, which are highly controversial in Europe.
Other aims of the Italo-French project are to make plants more tolerant of salty and dry ground, so that grapes can be grown on a wider geographical scale; to produce stronger vines so that pruning can be kept to a minimum and extreme weather conditions do not take heavy tolls; and to delve into the mechanisms of plant reproduction so that vines can be produced in all kinds of conditions.
