Three Nebbiolo clone anthocyanin profile as affected by environmental conditions

Context and purpose of the study. Epidermal Patterning Factors are a family of small peptides that are highly conserved in the plant kingdom and are involved in several physiological and developmental processes.

Heat and drought episodes during the growing season are becoming more frequent and more severe in many of the world’s grape‐growing regions

An integrated terroir characterization is currently realized in the French northern vineyard: “Anjou”. The concept of Basic Terroir Unit (B.T.U.) and its associated ground model “Rock, Alteration, Alterite” are used in this characterization. This work is coupled to a viticultural survey, based on parcels.

Tempranillo is the most widely grown red grapevine variety in Spain, currently representing 42% of the total number of red varieties and 21% of the total vineyard area. Due to the economic importance that this variety represents in Spanish viticulture, in some areas where it is traditionally grown, there is a special concern about the viability of the future growing of this variety is being compromised by the climate change effects.

The use of rootstocks tolerant to soil water deficit is an interesting strategy to cope with limited water availability. Currently, several nurseries are breeding new genotypes, but the physiological basis of its responses under water stress are largely unknown. To this end, an ecophysiological assessment of the conventional 110-Richter (110R) and SO4, and the new M1 and M4 rootstocks was carried out in potted ungrafted plants. During one season, these Vitis genotypes were grown under greenhouse conditions and subjected to two water regimes, well-watered and water deficit. Water potentials of plants under water deficit down to < -1.4 MPa, and net photosynthesis (AN) <5 μmol m-2 s-1 did not cause leaf oxidative stress damage compared to well-watered conditions in any of the genotypes. The antioxidant capacity was sufficient to neutralize the mild oxidative stress suffered. Under both treatments, gravimetric differences in daily water use were observed among genotypes, leading to differences in the biomass of root, shoot and leaf. Under well-watered conditions, SO4 and 110R were the most vigorous and M1 and M4 the least. However, under water stress, SO4 exhibited the greatest reduction in biomass while M4 showed the lowest. Remarkably, under these conditions, SO4 reached the least negative stem water potential (Ψstem), while M1 reduced stomatal conductance (gs) and AN the most. In addition, SO4 and M1 genotypes also showed the highest and lowest hydraulic conductance values, respectively. Our results suggest that there are differences in water use regulation among genotypes, not only attributed to differences in stomatal regulation or intrinsic water use efficiency at the leaf level. Therefore, because no differences in canopy-to-root ratio were achieved, it is hypothesized that xylem vessel anatomical differences may be driving the reported differences among rootstocks performance. Results demonstrate that each Vitis rootstock differs in its ecophysiological responses under water stress.