Exploring the genetic variability in water use efficiency: Evaluation of inter and intra cultivar genetic diversity in grapevines.
Genetic improvement of crop Water Use Efficiency (WUE) is a general goal because the increasing water scarcity and the trend to a more sustainable agriculture. For grapevines, this subject is relevant and need an urgent response because their wide distribution in semi-arid areas. New cultivars are difficult to introduce in viticulture due to the narrow dependency of consumer appreciation often linked to a certain particular wine taste. Clones of reputed cultivars would presumably be more accepted but little is known on the intra-cultivar genetic variability of the WUE. The present work compares, on the basis of two field assays, the variability of intrinsic water use efficiency (WUEi) in a large collection of cultivars in contrast with a collection of clones of Tempranillo cultivar. The results show that clonal variability of WUEi was around 80% of the inter-cultivar, thus providing a first assessment on the opportunity for clonal selection by WUE. Plotting the WUEi data against stem water potential or stomatal conductance it was possible to identify cultivars and clones out of the confidence intervals of this linear regression thus with significantly higher and lower WUEi values. The present results contribute to open the expectative for a genetic improvement of grapevine WUE.
Research Group on Plant Biology Under Mediterranean Conditions, Department of Biology, IMEDEA (CSIC-Universitat de les Illes Balears), Carretera de Valldemossa Km 7.5, 07122 Palma de Mallorca, Spain.
Ignacio
I
Tortosa
Research Group on Plant Biology Under Mediterranean Conditions, Department of Biology, IMEDEA (CSIC-Universitat de les Illes Balears), Carretera de Valldemossa Km 7.5, 07122 Palma de Mallorca, Spain.
José Mariano
JM
Escalona
Research Group on Plant Biology Under Mediterranean Conditions, Department of Biology, IMEDEA (CSIC-Universitat de les Illes Balears), Carretera de Valldemossa Km 7.5, 07122 Palma de Mallorca, Spain.
Josefina
J
Bota
Research Group on Plant Biology Under Mediterranean Conditions, Department of Biology, IMEDEA (CSIC-Universitat de les Illes Balears), Carretera de Valldemossa Km 7.5, 07122 Palma de Mallorca, Spain.
Magdalena
M
Tomás
Research Group on Plant Biology Under Mediterranean Conditions, Department of Biology, IMEDEA (CSIC-Universitat de les Illes Balears), Carretera de Valldemossa Km 7.5, 07122 Palma de Mallorca, Spain.
Esther
E
Hernández
Instituto de las Ciencias de la Vid y el Vino, Logroño, La Rioja, Spain.
Enrique García
EG
Escudero
Research Group on Plant Biology Under Mediterranean Conditions, Department of Biology, IMEDEA (CSIC-Universitat de les Illes Balears), Carretera de Valldemossa Km 7.5, 07122 Palma de Mallorca, Spain. Electronic address: hipolito.medrano@uib.es.
Hipólito
H
Medrano
D000383:Agriculture / Q000379:methods; D014644:Genetic Variation; D005838:Genotype; D013312:Stress, Physiological; D027843:Vitis / Q000235:genetics* / Q000378:metabolism; D014867:Water / Q000378:metabolism*
D014867:Water
Clone; Genotype evaluation; Tempranillo; Vitis vinifera; Water stress