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In the context of climate change, crop adaptation is of major interest. Adaptation can be achieved by modifying cultural practices, field management, or plant material. In grafted plants, the plant material can be improved by the scion or the rootstock. The rootstock comprises the anchorage and the nutrient and water absorption as well as hormone signaling, which are closely involved in plant adaptation to its environment. Moreover, the interactions between the scion and the rootstock provides a broad range regarding adaptation strategies to different growing conditions and production aims. In vineyards, the most commonly rootstocks are hybrid breeds between American Vitis species (V. berlandieri, V. riparia, and V. rupestris) and sometimes V. vinifera. Despite recent findings revealing a large genetic diversity in these genetic backgrounds, rootstocks remain poorly studied, especially at the genetic level. The V. berlandieri hybrids have shown good performances in water deficit and limestone tolerance in vineyards.
A selection of 286 V. berlandieri genotypes were chosen from a field-grown population of plants obtained from seedlings at Hochschule Geisenheim University, Germany. The samples were analysed regarding their genetic structure, which revealed two subpopulations and an association between the climatic conditions of the sampling areas and their genetic variability. While an isolation by distance has been highlighted, it was not possible to detect the variability in the genetic burden of the two subpopulations.
This population was used for grafting of V. vinifera cv. Riesling (clone 24-209Gm), which was planted in pots and grown in the greenhouse fortwo consecutive years with no limiting conditions. A root phenotyping has been carried out after one year of growing, revealing a high variability at the phenotype and genetic level. The heritability was high for these traits which allowed to carry out a genome wide association study and to detect eleven genetic markers associated with root-related traits.
Each year, the population was planted in a field experiment in order to observe the variability of conferred traits induced by the rootstock to the scion. A medium to high variability has
been detected for the pruning weight and the δ13C as well as a medium to high heritability. A genome wide association study has allowed us to detect two significant markers for δ13C but no markers were highlighted for the pruning weight.
Correlations between root-related and scion conferred traits have been found. A comparison of the phenotypical performance of the V. berlandieri genotypes to commercial rootstocks, i.e. SO4, 110R, Börner and 5BB, resulted in interesting insights for the selection of futuregenotypes for rootstock breeding. This association study is the first carried out in a natural population of a wild Vitis monospecies and highlights new opportunities for grapevine rootstocks breeding.