Vines with Reduced Night-time Transpiration!
Researchers from INRA & SupAgro have demonstrated that growth and yields are not altered by the choice of vine stocks used to reduce transpiration at night.
200 plants obtained by crossing Syrah and Grenache cultivars have been closely screened for 2 years using both the PhenoArch phenotyping platform and experimental vineyards.
Regions of the genome carrying the traits which permit this reduction in water loss without altered growth have been identified. Night-time transpiration which is usually equal to 15% of daytime transpiration has been reduced to around 7.5% thanks to the Syrah / Grenache cross.
Ms Aude Coupel-Ledru from Montpellier SupAgro gave her thesis defense on "Déterminismes physiologiques et génétiques de l'utilisation de l'eau chez la vigne" at the end of 2015 as part of the research done on this topic. It is now envisaged to use this underexploited trait in the battle to adapt to climate change by breeding grapevines for lower water loss.
For further information, read the press release (INRA)
Coupel-Ledru A, Lebon E, Christophe A, Gallo A, Gago P, Pantin F, Doligez A, Simonneau T. Reduced nighttime transpiration is a relevant breeding target for high water-use efficiency in grapevine PNAS 2016 113 (32) 8963-8968; DOI:10.1073/pnas.1600826113