About

Dr. Dario Cantù is a Professor and the Ray Rossi Endowed Chair in Viticulture and Enology at the University of California, Davis, within the Department of Viticulture and Enology. He holds a Ph.D. in Plant Biology from UC Davis, where he also completed his undergraduate and Master’s degrees in Agricultural Sciences. Born and raised in Milan, Italy, Dr. Cantù's research integrates principles of systems biology, quantitative genetics, genomics, and bioinformatics to study grapevine traits. His work focuses on dissecting the genetic bases of economically important grape characteristics, including responses to biotic and abiotic stresses, flavor, and aroma. His research topics encompass grapevine resistance to pathogens, the evolution of pathogenicity in plant pathogens, berry ripening and its association with microbial communities, domestication and evolution of grapes, and the genetics of grape and wine flavor and aroma. Since joining UC Davis in 2012, Dr. Cantù has contributed to advancing understanding in viticulture and enology through his research and teaching, including courses such as Introduction to Viticulture, Grape Pests and Diseases, and Grape Development & Composition.

Research topics

• Biology
• Genetics
• Botany
• Evolutionary biology
• Food science
• Ecology
• Horticulture
• Biochemistry
• Biotechnology
• Database

Selected publications

• The hidden world within plants: metatranscriptomics unveils the complexity of wood microbiomes

  Journal of Experimental Botany · 2022 · 48 citations

  • Biology
  • Ecology
  • Genetics

  The importance of plants as complex entities influenced by genomes of the associated microorganisms is now seen as a new source of variability for a more sustainable agriculture, also in the light of ongoing climate change. For this reason, we investigated through metatranscriptomics whether the taxa profile and behaviour of microbial communities associated with the wood of 20-year-old grapevine plants are influenced by the health status of the host. We report for the first time a metatranscriptome from a complex tissue in a real environment, highlighting that this approach is able to define the microbial community better than referenced transcriptomic approaches. In parallel, the use of total RNA enabled the identification of bacterial taxa in healthy samples that, once isolated from the original wood tissue, displayed potential biocontrol activities against a wood-degrading fungal taxon. Furthermore, we revealed an unprecedented high number of new viral entities (~120 new viral species among 180 identified) associated with a single and limited environment and with potential impact on the whole holobiont. Taken together, our results suggest a complex multitrophic interaction in which the viral community also plays a crucial role in raising new ecological questions for the exploitation of microbial-assisted sustainable agriculture.

  PublisherDOI

• Sources and Assembly of Microbial Communities in Vineyards as a Functional Component of Winegrowing

  Frontiers in Microbiology · 2021 · 100 citations

  • Biology
  • Ecology
  • Biotechnology

  Microbiomes are integral to viticulture and winemaking - collectively termed winegrowing - where diverse fungi and bacteria can exert positive and negative effects on grape health and wine quality. Wine is a fermented natural product, and the vineyard serves as a key point of entry for quality-modulating microbiota, particularly in wine fermentations that are conducted without the addition of exogenous yeasts. Thus, the sources and persistence of wine-relevant microbiota in vineyards critically impact its quality. Site-specific variations in microbiota within and between vineyards may contribute to regional wine characteristics. This includes distinctions in microbiomes and microbiota at the strain level, which can contribute to wine flavor and aroma, supporting the role of microbes in the accepted notion of terroir as a biological phenomenon. Little is known about the factors driving microbial biodiversity within and between vineyards, or those that influence annual assembly of the fruit microbiome. Fruit is a seasonally ephemeral, yet annually recurrent product of vineyards, and as such, understanding the sources of microbiota in vineyards is critical to the assessment of whether or not microbial terroir persists with inter-annual stability, and is a key factor in regional wine character, as stable as the geographic distances between vineyards. This review examines the potential sources and vectors of microbiota within vineyards, general rules governing plant microbiome assembly, and how these factors combine to influence plant-microbe interactions relevant to winemaking.

  DOI

• Transcriptomics Provides a Genetic Signature of Vineyard Site and Offers Insight into Vintage-Independent Inoculated Fermentation Outcomes

  mSystems · 2021 · 15 citations

  • Biology
  • Genetics
  • Database

  strain RC212. The detected RC212 gene expression signatures associated with region and vineyard site also allowed the identification of flavor-associated metabolic processes and environmental factors that could impact primary fermentation outcomes. These data offer novel insights into the complexities and subtleties of vineyard-specific inoculated wine fermentation and starting points for future investigations into factors that contribute to regional wine distinctiveness.

  PublisherDOI

• Multiple independent recombinations led to hermaphroditism in grapevine

  Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences · 2021 · 54 citations

  • Biology
  • Evolutionary biology
  • Genetics

  genus using shotgun resequencing data of 556 wild and domesticated accessions from North America, East Asia, and Europe. A high linkage disequilibrium was found at the SDR in all wild grape species, while different recombination signatures were observed along the hermaphrodite (H) haplotype of 363 cultivated accessions, revealing two distinct H haplotypes, named H1 and H2. To further examine the H2 haplotype, we sequenced the genome of two grapevine cultivars, 'Riesling' and 'Chardonnay'. By reconstructing the first two H2 haplotypes, we estimated the divergence time between H1 and H2 haplotypes at ∼6 million years ago, which predates the domestication of grapevine (∼8,000 y ago). Our findings emphasize the important role of recombination suppression in maintaining dioecy in wild grape species and lend additional support to the hypothesis that at least two independent recombination events led to the reversion to hermaphroditism in grapevine.

  DOI

• Biocontrol Potential of Grapevine Endophytic and Rhizospheric Fungi Against Trunk Pathogens

  Frontiers in Microbiology · 2021 · 70 citations

  • Biology
  • Botany
  • Horticulture

  strains isolated from grapevines are promising biocontrol agents against GTDs.

  DOI

• Phylogenomics of Plant-Associated Botryosphaeriaceae Species

  Frontiers in Microbiology · 2021 · 76 citations

  Senior authorCorresponding
  • Biology
  • Botany
  • Genetics

  .

  PublisherOA PDFDOI

• The genetic basis of sex determination in grapes

  Nature Communications · 2020 · 203 citations

  Senior authorCorresponding
  • Biology
  • Genetics
  • Evolutionary biology

  It remains a major challenge to identify the genes and mutations that lead to plant sexual differentiation. Here, we study the structure and evolution of the sex-determining region (SDR) in Vitis species. We report an improved, chromosome-scale Cabernet Sauvignon genome sequence and the phased assembly of nine wild and cultivated grape genomes. By resolving twenty Vitis SDR haplotypes, we compare male, female, and hermaphrodite haplotype structures and identify sex-linked regions. Coupled with gene expression data, we identify a candidate male-sterility mutation in the VviINP1 gene and potential female-sterility function associated with the transcription factor VviYABBY3. Our data suggest that dioecy has been lost during domestication through a rare recombination event between male and female haplotypes. This work significantly advances the understanding of the genetic basis of sex determination in Vitis and provides the information necessary to rapidly identify sex types in grape breeding programs.

  DOI

Frequent coauthors

• Andrea Minio

  University of California, Davis

  87 shared

• Rosa Figueroa‐Balderas

  University of California, Davis

  69 shared

• Abraham Morales‐Cruz

  Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory

  48 shared

• Mélanie Massonnet

  University of California, Davis

  47 shared

• Kendra Baumgartner

  Agricultural Research Service

  38 shared

• Brandon S. Gaut

  University of California, Irvine

  33 shared

• Bárbara Blanco-Ulate

  University of California, Davis

  33 shared

• Yongfeng Zhou

  Agricultural Genomics Institute at Shenzhen

  31 shared

Awards & honors

• Ray Rossi Endowed Chair in Viticulture and Enology

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