Resveratrol has been reported to possess a variety of biological and pharmaceutical activities. Regardless of its beneficial effects on health, the amount of resveratrol in grapes is very low. In order to induce the resveratrol biosynthesis, the promoter region of a genomic fragment encoding the resveratrol synthase was isolated and a molecular switch was identified which provides us with defining biotic or abiotic inducers that transcriptionally up-regulate the gene expression involved in the resveratrol biosynthesis. We could successfully increase the amount of resveratrol in grapes up to 3-fold by using these environmental factors.