Impact of water deficit on single grapevine berry ripening

The effect of water deficit on grapevine fruit ripening has most often been addressed under the assumption that individual berries behave identically to their blend in the future harvest, both kinetically and metabolically. However, mixing unsynchronized berries, whose water and sucrose import pathways critically change according to their own developmental stages, intrinsically blurs the physiological and phenological effects of stress. We investigated the consequences of water deprivation on berry growth and primary metabolites content (glucose, fructose, tartaric and malic acids) on sixteen genetically distant genotypes of Vitis vinifera and fungus-tolerant hybrids submitted to 10 watering regimes, from well-watered to partial leaf shedding. Then, six genotypes were selected for comprehensive single berry analyses. Own-rooted potted plants bearing berries at the late herbaceous plateau stage were subjected to the different water treatments for four weeks in a greenhouse with automated regulation of soil water content. Berry and cluster growth were monitored by image analysis, before performing a final destructive sampling to determine berry weight and composition. Grape phenology was highly dependent on water availability. In some cultivars, ripening was considerably delayed or even prevented under well-watered conditions. These cultivars required an intermediate water deficit to trigger the second berry growth period along with sugar accumulation and malate breakdown, typical of the ripening process. Ripening still occurred in all genotypes upon severe water deprivation, although sugar accumulation and concentration were dramatically impaired, and the second growth period was annihilated or even replaced by shrivelling. Water deficit increased malate breakdown, uncoupling it from sugar accumulation. Single berry analyses suggest that although asynchronicity in berry ripening was reduced upon stress, individual fruits within the same cluster may undergo heterogeneous water budgets, expansion or shrivelling.