terclim by ICS banner
IVES 9 IVES Conference Series 9 Fruit set rate clonal variation explains yield differences at harvest in Malbec

Fruit set rate clonal variation explains yield differences at harvest in Malbec

Abstract

Malbec is Argentina’s flagship variety, and it is internationally recognized for producing high-quality red wines. Fruit set rate is a major component in grapevine yield determination, and it is the outcome of multiple genetic and environmental interacting variables. Here, we characterized the reproductive performance of 25 Malbec clones grown under homogeneous conditions in a 23-years old experimental plot. We measured traits near flowering (like the number of flowers per inflorescence) and at harvest (including the number of berries per cluster and berry weight), during two consecutive seasons (2022 and 2023). After combining image-based systems to assist in the phenotyping with univariate and multivariate approaches for statistical analyses, we identified a wide range of clonal variation. For example, fruit set rate varied from 13.1 to 65.8% (avg. 38.4%) and from 9.8 to 50.0% (avg. 32.1%) in 2022 and 2023, respectively. A hierarchical clustering on principal components analysis identified three clonal groups of phenotypic similarity, consistent between seasons. Interestingly, two of these groups presented a similar number of flowers per inflorescence but markedly different fruit set rates. Consequently, clones from these two groups produced a significantly different number of berries per cluster. The in-depth analysis of clones assigned to these contrasting groups, for traits like pollen viability and flower morphology, allowed exploring the potential causes of the observed differences. We found that fruit set rate variation has multiple causes in Malbec, associated to anomalous flower development and functionality, which could ultimately impact on clonal yield differences at harvest.

DOI:

Publication date: June 13, 2024

Issue: Open GPB 2024

Type: Poster

Authors

Luciano Calderón1*, Javier Tello2*, Silvina van Houten1, Claudio Muñoz1,4, Tomas Oroño1, Laura Bree3, Daniel Bergamin3, Cristóbal Sola3, Natalia Carrillo4, José Miguel Martinez-Zapater2, Diego Lijavetzky1

1 Instituto de Biología Agrícola de Mendoza (CONICET-UNCuyo). Mendoza, Argentina
2 Instituto de las Ciencias de la Vid y del Vino (ICVV; CSIC, UR, Gobierno de La Rioja). Logroño, Spain
3 Vivero Mercier Argentina. Mendoza, Argentina
4 Facultad de Ciencias Agrarias (UNCuyo). Mendoza, Argentina

Contact the author*

Keywords

intra-varietal variation, reproductive performance, image-assisted phenotyping, flower development

Tags

IVES Conference Series | Open GPB | Open GPB 2024

Citation

Related articles…

Intelligent use of ethanol for the direct quantitative determination of volatile compounds in spirit drinks

The quality of any alcoholic beverage depends on many parameters, such as cultivars, harvesting time, fermentation, distillation technology used, quality and type of wooden barrels (in case of matured drinks), etc.; however, the most important factor in their classification is content of volatile compounds.

Fertilization Lysimeters provide new insights into the needs and impacts of N nutrition on table grape performance and fruit yield and quality

Table grape production requires adequate nitrogen (N) supply to sustain vine performance and obtain high yields. However, excess agricultural N fertilization is a major source of groundwater contamination and air pollution. Therefore, there is a strong need for empirically based precision N fertilization schemes in vineyards, for optimizing grape yield and quality while minimizing their environmental impact.
Our aim was to unequivocally quantify table grape N requirements, elucidate the drivers of daily N uptake, and quantify the relationship between fertigation N levels and vine growth, fruit yield, composition, and quality. For this, forty ‘Early Sweet’ (early-maturing, white) and ‘Crimson seedless’ (late-maturing, red) vines were grown in 500L drainage-lysimeters for 2 fruiting seasons, while subjected to five continuous N fertigation treatments ranging from 10 to 200 ppm.

Accumulation of deleterious mutations in grapevine and its relationship with traits of interest for wine production and resilience

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.

Identification of 4-hydroxy-2-nonenal, a gamma nonalactone precursor in must and wine from Bordeaux cultivars

Various molecular compounds are responsible for the complex mixture of fragrances that give wine its aroma. In particular, the ‘cooked fruit’ aroma found in red wines from hot and/or dry vintages or from the vinification of late harvested grapes has been intensively investigated in recent years. Lactones and especially γ-nonalactone were found to be responsible for the ‘cooked fruit’

In line monitoring of red wine fermentations using ir spectrospcopy

There has been a shift in modern industry to implement non-destructive and non-invasive process monitoring techniques (Helmdach et al., 2013).