Grape Tartaric Acid: Chemistry, Function, Metabolism, and Regulation

Abstract

Tartaric acid (TA) is the primary organic acid present in grapes and a fundamental constituent of wine, responsible for shaping its taste, aroma, and overall quality. This review presents a comprehensive overview of the advances made in previous investigations on grape tartaric acid. It elucidates the structural properties, distribution characteristics, biosynthesis, catabolism, and transcriptional regulation of grape tartaric acid, and also speculates on the regulatory mechanism of tartaric acid based on the modulation of ascorbic acid-related transcription factors. Furthermore, this review provides insights into the future research directions and objectives, with the goal of providing a reference for the analysis of the complete biosynthetic pathway of grape tartaric acid, thereby enabling precise regulation of tartaric acid.