Water deficit effects on grapevine woody tissue pigmentations

Abstract

Grossi D., Rustioni L., Simone Di Lorenzo G., Failla O., Brancadoro L. (2016) Water availability is an important environmental factor in viticulture. In a climate change context, vineyard management should be adapted to the new conditions. Drought-resistant rootstocks need to be selected. In this paper, reflectance spectroscopy is proposed as a new method to characterize the water stress effects on woody section pigmentations. Cabernet Sauvignon grafted on 4 different rootstocks (140Ru, 420A, M2 and M3) represented the plant material. Greenhouse controlled conditions allowed the comparison of well-watered (WW) and water-stressed (WS) plants. The physiological responses were characterized concerning daily water consumption, stem water potential, gas exchange, and plant growth. The water use efficiency was calculated and discussed as well. Spectroscopy analyses of woody sections indicated a major absorption band probably related to phenolic derivatives. Water stress produced characteristic spectrum modifications both in the Cabernet Sauvignon stem and in the rootstock xylem. These preliminary results encourage further studies addressed at the evaluation of drought-resistant genotypes, to distinguish their stress responses and to characterize the compositional aspects linked to drought tolerance.

Stem Xylem Characterization for Vitis Drought Tolerance

“…The reflectance spectra of the Vitis xylems showed two main absorption bands (Figure 2a). The reflection decrease in the blue region (≈500 nm) could be due to oxidized brown phenolic derivatives, which has been previously reported by Grossi et al 9 The reflectance decrease in the red region should be related to the chlorophyll absorption. In this part of the spectrum, the main peak (≈675 nm) indicates the presence of chlorophyll a and the shoulder around 650 nm is related to chlorophyll b.…”

“…11 The role of chlorophylls in stems is not clear; however, Kriedemann and Buttrose 26 demonstrated the photosynthetic activity of woody shoots in V. vinifera. When the spectra observed for grapevine shoots are compared to the spectra reported by Grossi et al, 9 chlorophyll absorption appears much more intense. This could be explained by different sample treatments [in the present work, the analyses were carried out just after the woody slide preparation, without conservation treatments, whereas in the publication, samples were fixed in an ethanol/water/formaldehyde/acetic acid (60:35:4:1) solution and stored until analysis].…”

Drought increases chlorophyll content in stems of Vitis interspecific hybrids

“…3) were obtained by Rustioni et al (2016). The presence of chlorophylls in the grapevine shoots, was also highlighted by Grossi et al (2016), however, in previous case, due to the conservation treatment before reflectance measurements, the band was less evident. The photosynthetic activity of woody shoots in V. vinifera has been already demonstrated since 1971 (Kriedemann and Bottrose 1971) and the recent interpretations of the roles of corticular photosynthesis to cope drought emphasize the importance of this mechanism (Cernusak and Cheesma 2015;Vandegehuchte et al 2015).…”

Identification of Salt and Drought Biochemical Stress Markers in Several Silene vulgaris Populations

“…The first and ubiquitous response of plants under environmental stress is inhibition of growth, best quantified by the relative reduction of the dry weight and water content of the plant aerial part, compared to the nonstressed plants. Growth inhibition is also a consequence of activation of defense mechanisms by plants [11,12,70,71]. According to the relative degree of stress-induced growth inhibition, the Spanish reference population (2, Ref.…”