A new discovery by University of Adelaide and CSIRO promises to accelerate the development of salt-tolerant grapevines.
The finding looks likely to improve the sustainability of the Australian wine sector and significantly accelerate the breeding of more robust salt-tolerant grapevines.
While low levels of salt can improve the flavour of wine, in excess it can lead to unpalatable tastes, reduce fruit yield and damage the long-term health of grapevines.
The problem is experienced in premium wine regions around the world, and issues caused by salinity are believed to cost in excess of $1 billion each year to Australia’s agriculture, food and wine sectors.
With funding from Wine Australia, a team of scientists from the ARC Centre of Excellence in Plant Energy Biology at the University of Adelaide and CSIRO Agriculture and Food identified genes expressed in grapevine roots that limit the amount of sodium – a key component of salt – that reaches berries and leaves.
The research, which was published in the journal New Phytologist, was led by Dr Mandy Walker, CSIRO, and Professor Matthew Gilliham, University of Adelaide, who are continuing to collaborate on additional factors that will further improve grapevine salt tolerance, such as the exclusion of chloride.
“Berries that contain too much sodium may be unsuitable for wine production and this can lead to vineyards remaining unpicked, resulting in financial losses for vineyard owners,” Dr Sam Henderson, co-first author of the study, from the University of Adelaide said.
“We set out to determine why some grapevines accumulate salt and others don’t, and found a specific mutation in a sodium transport protein found in grapevine roots, which prevents it from working effectively. This leads to more salt leaking into the shoots of vines from the soil.”
The discovery allowed the scientists to develop genetic markers that are being used to breed more salt-tolerant grapevine rootstocks, allowing new genotypes to be screened at the seedling stage rather than through lengthy and expensive field-based vineyard trials.
