Boosting grapevine breeding for climate-smart viticulture: from genetic resources to predictive genomics

Abstract

The multifaceted nature of climate change is increasing the urgency to select resilient grapevine varieties, or generate new, fitter cultivars, to withstand a multitude of new challenging conditions. The attainment of this goal is hindered by the limiting pace of traditional breeding approaches, which require decades to result in new selections. On the other hand, marker-assisted breeding has proved useful when it comes to traits governed by one or few genes with great effects on the phenotype, but its efficacy is still restricted for complex traits controlled by many loci. On these premises, innovative strategies are emerging which could help guide selection, taking advantage of the genetic diversity within the Vitis genus in its entirety. Multiple germplasm collections are also available as a source of genetic material for the introgression of alleles of interest via adapted and pioneering transformation protocols, which present themselves as promising tools for future applications on a notably recalcitrant species such as grapevine. Genome editing intersects both these strategies, not only by being an alternative to obtain focused changes in a relatively rapid way, but also by supporting a fine-tuning of new genotypes developed with other methods. A review on the state of the art concerning the available genetic resources and the possibilities of use of innovative techniques in aid of selection is presented here to support the production of climate-smart grapevine genotypes.

Crop Landraces and Indigenous Varieties: A Valuable Source of Genes for Plant Breeding

“…In view of the drastic climate change and its impact on grapevine yield and quality, efforts have been undertaken to capitalize on the rapid advancements in genomic technologies to face current and future environmental challenges. These efforts aim to uncover significant associations between the rich grapevine diversity of indigenous varieties and a wide range of valuable agronomic traits at the molecular level [ 168 , 178 ]. In addition, grapevine performance relies intensely on appropriate rootstock utilization.…”

“…In recent years, a great number of targeted or GWAS studies have been reported aimed at dissecting the genetic basis underlying key traits related to grapevine quality and stress resilience [ 168 , 178 ]. One of the most important traits of the grape table and raisin industry is seedlessness.…”

Revitalizing agriculture: next-generation genotyping and -omics technologies enabling molecular prediction of resilient traits in the Solanaceae family

“…In recent years, several innovative approaches have been developed for the identification and selection of resilience alleles ( Magon et al., 2023 ; Villalobos-López et al., 2022 ), enabling a deeper understanding of the genetic basis of resilience in various organisms. Transcriptomics have played a crucial role.…”