Articles
Genetic resources for a sustainable viticulture under climate change
Article number
1409_32
Pages
241 – 248
Language
English
Abstract
Water scarcity is one of the main limiting factors for grapevine cultivation in semi-arid regions, which is increasing in the context of climate change.
To face this challenge in a sustainable way, it could be useful to consider plant water use efficiency (WUE) as a new criterion in current and future breeding programs.
Several long-term studies on intrinsic WUE (WUEi) variability among grapevine cultivars, clones within a cultivar, and rootstocks were carried out in field and pots experiments under different environmental and soil water availability conditions, using the photosynthesis-to-stomatal conductance ratio (WUEi = AN/gs) and carbon isotope ratio (
13C) as selection targets.
Results showed a significant WUE variation between ancient and commercial cultivars according to the different stomatal regulation capacity under drought.
Furthermore, 30 and 43% of intracultivar variability in WUEi was found within ‘Tempranillo’ and ‘Grenache’ cultivars, respectively, mainly under moderate water stress conditions.
Although seasonal and environmental factors affected this inter- and intracultivar variability, a multilevel methodology analysis: crop WUE as the ratio between yield and total amount of water applied (WUEcrop), WUEi and13C, allowed to robustly rank the different genotypes by their WUE. Regarding rootstocks, a significant effect of rootstock genotype on scion performance related to plant water status regulation, plant growth and WUE under soil water deficit was observed in field and pot experiments when comparing commercial and new bred genotypes.
Furthermore, rootstock effects seem to be related to the partitioning of photoassimilates between the root and the shoot.
These results support the interest of exploring genetic resources in grapevine to cope with the detrimental effects of climate change on viticulture by considering WUE as a selection criterion for breeding programs.
Further research is needed, however, to elucidate the physiological, morphological and anatomical basis of different genotypes’ responses to water availability.
To face this challenge in a sustainable way, it could be useful to consider plant water use efficiency (WUE) as a new criterion in current and future breeding programs.
Several long-term studies on intrinsic WUE (WUEi) variability among grapevine cultivars, clones within a cultivar, and rootstocks were carried out in field and pots experiments under different environmental and soil water availability conditions, using the photosynthesis-to-stomatal conductance ratio (WUEi = AN/gs) and carbon isotope ratio (
13C) as selection targets.Results showed a significant WUE variation between ancient and commercial cultivars according to the different stomatal regulation capacity under drought.
Furthermore, 30 and 43% of intracultivar variability in WUEi was found within ‘Tempranillo’ and ‘Grenache’ cultivars, respectively, mainly under moderate water stress conditions.
Although seasonal and environmental factors affected this inter- and intracultivar variability, a multilevel methodology analysis: crop WUE as the ratio between yield and total amount of water applied (WUEcrop), WUEi and
13C, allowed to robustly rank the different genotypes by their WUE. Regarding rootstocks, a significant effect of rootstock genotype on scion performance related to plant water status regulation, plant growth and WUE under soil water deficit was observed in field and pot experiments when comparing commercial and new bred genotypes.Furthermore, rootstock effects seem to be related to the partitioning of photoassimilates between the root and the shoot.
These results support the interest of exploring genetic resources in grapevine to cope with the detrimental effects of climate change on viticulture by considering WUE as a selection criterion for breeding programs.
Further research is needed, however, to elucidate the physiological, morphological and anatomical basis of different genotypes’ responses to water availability.
Authors
J.M. Escalona, I. Buesa, G. Santesteban, N. Torres, I. Tortosa, J. Bota, H. Medrano
Keywords
breeding, clones, cultivars, rootstocks, Vitis vinifera, water stress, water use efficiency
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