Using climate services to project grapevine varietal adequation under climate change – application to cv. Tempranillo in the Douro wine region

Traditional drought tolerant varieties such as Cabernet Sauvignon, Monastrell, and Syrah [1], have been used as parents in the grapevine breeding program initiated by the Instituto Murciano de Investigación y Desarrollo Agrario y Medioambiental (IMIDA) in 1997 [2]. This work presents the results of evaluating three new genotypes obtained from crosses between ‘Monastrell’ and ‘Cabernet Sauvignon’ (MC16 and MC80) and between ‘Monastrell’ and ‘Syrah’ (MS104), comparing their performance under conditions of water scarcity and high temperatures with that of their respective parental varieties. For this purpose, the six genotypes were cultivated under controlled irrigation conditions (60% ETc) and rainfed conditions.

Climate change will increase the frequency of water deficit situation in some European regions, by the increase of the evapotranspiration and the reduction of rainfalls during the growing cycle. This requires finding ways of adaptation, including the use of plant material which is more tolerant to drought. In addition to the varieties used as scions that result in the typicality of wines, rootstocks constitute a relevant way of adaptation to more stressful environmental conditions.

Volatile organic compounds (VOCs) are emitted by nearly all plant organs of the plants, including leaves. They play a key role in the communication with other organisms, therefore they are involved in plant defence against phytopathogens. In this study VOCs from grapevine leaves of two varieties of Vitis vinifera infected by Erysiphe necator were analysed. The varieties were selected based on their susceptibility to pathogen, Kishmish Vatkana has the Ren1 resistance gene and Zamarrica showed high susceptibility in previous trials.

Deleterious mutations that severely reduce population fitness are rapidly removed from the gene pool by purifying selection. However, evolutionary drivers such as genetic drift brought about by demographic bottlenecks may comprise its efficacy by allowing deleterious mutations to accumulate, thereby limiting the adaptive potential of populations. Moreover, positive selection can hitchhike mildly deleterious mutations due to linkage caused by lack of recombination. Similarly, in the context of species domestication, artificial selection mimics these evolutionary processes, which can have undesirable consequences for production and resilience. In this study, we evaluated the extent of the accumulation of deleterious mutations and the magnitude of their effects (also known as genetic load) at the whole-genome scale for ca.

Granxa D’Outeiro is a recovered ancient vineyard located in the heart of DOP Ribeiro, where traditional white grapevine varieties are growing under sustainable management. Spontaneous fermentations using grape must from Treixadura, Albariño, Lado, Godello, and Loureira varieties were carried out at experimental winery of Evega. Yeasts were isolated from must and at different stages of fermentation. Those colonies belonging to Saccharomyces cerevisiae were characterized at strain level by mDNA-RFLPs.