Water deficit differentially modulates leaf photosynthesis and transpiration of fungus-tolerant Muscadinia x Vitis hybrids

Abstract

Screening for drought performance among novel fungi-tolerant grapevine genotypes is a key point to consider in semiarid regions where water scarcity is a common problem during fruit ripening period. It is therefore important to evaluate the genotypes’ responses at the level of carbon metabolism and water demand, under water deficit conditions. This study aimed to characterize leaf and plant water use efficiency (respectively named WUEi and WUEpl) of novel INRAE fungi-tolerant genotypes (including LowSugarBerry (LSB) genotypes), under mild and high-water deficit (WD) and to decipher the photosynthetic parameters leading to higher WUEi. For this purpose, experiments were conducted on potted plants during one season using a phenotyping platform. Two stabilized soil moisture capacity (SMC) conditions, corresponding to mild (SMC 0.6) and high (SMC 0.3) WD, were imposed from the onset of berry ripening until the physiological ripeness stage, which was defined as the point at which fruits reach their maximum solutes and water content. At the whole plant level, all genotypes increased WUEpl under high WD. The highest WUEpl was reached for 3176N, which displayed both a high rate of non-structural carbon accumulation in fruits due to high fruit-to-leaf ratio and low plant transpiration because of low total leaf area. However, when normalizing the fruit-to-leaf ratio among the genotypes, G14 reached the highest normalized WUEpl_n under high WD. At the leaf level, WUEi also increased under high WD, with the highest value attained for G14 and 3176N and the lowest value for Syrah. The higher WUEi values for all genotypes compared to Syrah were associated to higher levels of photosynthesis and changes in light-harvesting efficiency parameters (ΦCO2, qP and qN), while no clear trend was apparent when considering the photosynthetic biochemical parameters (Vcmax, Jmax). Finally, a positive correlation between leaf and plant WUE was observed regardless of genotypes. This study allowed us to classify grapevine genotypes based on their grapes primary metabolite accumulation and water consumption during the critical sugar-loading period. Additionally, the study highlighted the potential drought adaptation mechanism of the LSB genotypes.