The sensitivity to ABA affects the cross-talk between scion/rootstock in tolerant grapevines to drought stress

Falanghina, a typical wine from the Sannio (Campania region, Italy), hosts a complex fungal microbiota that significantly influences both fermentation dynamics and sensory characteristics.

The crossings of three wild Vitis species are commonly used as rootstocks in wine production worldwide. Factors such as disease resistance and vigor are most important for their selection.
With climate change extending drought conditions and water limitations, the selection of rootstocks conferring increased tolerance to drought takes on greater importance. Therefore, identifying Vitis species with improved drought tolerance and incorporating them into breeding programs could contribute to more resilient rootstocks under water limiting conditions. Furthermore, those species serve as a valuable resource to increase genetic variability of rootstocks. We hypothesize that species native to drier habitats will exhibit superior physiological performance under drought stress.

The interactive effects of three major enological variables were evaluated on the quality of Schiava wine up to one year of storage in bottle.

The recovery of ancestral or minority vine varieties has been gaining great interest in recent years, among other reasons because it is likely that some of these varieties, due to the fact that they are found in relict areas, have a greater potential for adaptation to external factors (biotic or abiotic) and can minimize the effects that climate change is causing in viticulture. Varieties that can be grown at altitude are currently being sought to combat rising temperatures and prolonged extreme drought conditions. In Catalonia, the Pyrenean expansion of vineyard cultivation is documented from the 10th century and has been related to the “small climatic optimum” (9th-12th centuries) and also to seigniorial power.[1] But different adverse climatic periods and the arrival of Phylloxera by the late 19th century made many of these crops disappear.[2]

Drought is one of the main challenges for viticulture in the context of global change. The choice of rootstock could be leveraged for vineyard adaptation to drought as we can improve plant performance without modifying the scion variety. However, most of the existing rootstocks, selected over a century ago, have a narrow genetic background which could compromise their adaptive potential.