Grape berry shrivel disorder – lessons learnt and knowledge gaps

M. Griesser, S. Savoi, R. Vankova, A. Forneck
Grapevine ripening physiological disorders affect the yield of the vine and the quality of the grape berries considerably. Among them, the sugar accumulation disorder (SAD), also known as berry shrivel (BS) or suppression of uniform ripening (SOUR), is a grapevine ripening disorder with still unclear physiological mechanisms. Recognizable symptoms of BS are: a suppression of sugar accumulation short after veraison, high contents of organic acids, low pH values, low amounts of anthocyanin in red grape cultivars, and finally shrinking berries. The presented study aims to extract the most recent developments in BS research, highlight major steps forward in understanding BS symptom developments, identify overlaps with other ripening disorders and discuss obvious knowledge gaps. Thereby we focus on the process of grape berry ripening control, as BS sugar accumulation stops short after veraison and recent transcriptomic results identified a lack or delay in “switch” gene induction in affected berries. By combining phytohormone analyses with RNASeq results, we proposed two distinct phytohormone profiles before and after veraison. A pre-veraison ACC peak was determined, which possibly could interact with the complex ethylene-auxin relationship in ripening control. There is a need to develop sophisticated approaches and defined experiments in order to scale down the complex phenomenon of ripening disorders in grapevine. By merging and analysing existing knowledge from different approaches, we can deduce a more precise BS induction hypothesis and successful prevention strategies thereafter.
Griesser, M., Savoi, S., Vankova, R. and Forneck, A. (2024). Grape berry shrivel disorder – lessons learnt and knowledge gaps. Acta Hortic. 1390, 161-166
DOI: 10.17660/ActaHortic.2024.1390.20
https://doi.org/10.17660/ActaHortic.2024.1390.20
grape berry ripening, phytohormones, ripening regulation
English

Acta Horticulturae