Grapevine rootstock choice changes microbes living on the leaves most
Canavera G, Vaccari F, Gatti M, Puglisi E, Frioni T
Climate Adaptation
If you grow grapes, fruit trees, or roses on grafted rootstock, this shows that choice does more than affect vigor and disease resistance: it reaches all the way up to reshape the invisible community of microbes coating every leaf.
Grapevines are almost never grown on their own roots; growers graft the fruiting vine onto a separate rootstock chosen for traits like drought tolerance. This study found that swapping rootstocks doesn't just change how well a vine handles dry conditions, it also changes which microbes live on the leaves, even more dramatically than which microbes live in the soil near the roots. Two newer rootstocks, bred for drought tolerance, kept the vines noticeably better hydrated across two years with very different weather.
Key Findings
Vitis vinifera cv. Barbera grafted onto six rootstocks (1103 Paulsen, 140 Ruggeri, SO4, Kober 5BB, M2, M4) was studied over two growing seasons (2023-2024) at flowering and veraison.
Phyllosphere (leaf surface) microbial communities, profiled via 16S rRNA and ITS sequencing, showed the strongest rootstock-driven compositional shifts, more than rhizosphere (root-zone) communities.
Newer drought-tolerant rootstocks M2 and M4 maintained higher stem water potential than the other four rootstocks, indicating better drought tolerance, and rootstock genotype also affected vegetative growth (leaf area, node number, pruning weight).
chevron_right Technical Summary
The rootstock a grapevine is grafted onto changes more than drought tolerance: it reshapes the community of microbes living on the leaves, more so than those in the soil around the roots. Two newer drought-tolerant rootstocks kept vines better hydrated across two very different growing seasons.
Abstract Preview
Original paper
Rootstock genotype shapes vine functional traits and associated microbiomes, with predominant shifts in the phyllosphere.
Rootstock genotype shaped grapevine physiology and associated microbial communities, with the strongest compositional shifts consistently observed in the phyllosphere across contrasting growing sea...
open_in_new Read full abstractAbstract copyright held by the original publisher.
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Vitis (grapevine) is a genus of about 80 species of twining plants in the family Vitaceae. The genus consists of species predominantly from the Northern Hemisphere. It is economically important as the source of grapes, both for direct consumption of the fruit and for fermentation to produce wine....