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Grapes: staying out in the cold Studying how the wild grape Vitis amurensis copes with cold may help in breeding grape varieties that can grow at lower temperatures. To prevent frost damage, plants can increase cells’ sugar and protein contents, lowering the freezing point, and preventing ice crystal formation. V. amurensis, a wild grape native to Asia, grows well at low temperatures, but its cold-tolerance compounds have yet to be identified. Haiping Xin and Shaohua Li at the Chinese Academy of Sciences and co-workers profiled the compounds present in V. amurensis and V. vinifera cv. Muscat of Hamburg, a wine grape, following cold stress. V. amurensis cells were richer in a dozen compounds, including amino acids, organic acids, and putrescine, a component of the odor of decaying flesh. These results may help in developing grape varieties with increased cold tolerance.