Grapevine biology and adaptation to viticulture

Abstract

This paper provides a context for later papers in these Proceedings on specific aspects of reproductive biology; particularly those aspects that impact on viticulture. In keeping with the concept of 'selfish genes' I posit that grapevine reproductive biology is most usefully introduced in a broad context where particular genotypes within a population are regarded as complex survival machines programmed by their genes to ensure successful cycles of growth and reproductive development. Topics not covered by this symposium such as leaf function, root physiology and nutrition, along with those that are a focus, viz. the physiology of bud fruitfulness, floral anatomy and pericarp development, have all featured in the evolutionary history of Vitis spp. Such adaptive features must be regarded as specialised components of a plant system regulated by a genetic constitution that has successfully evolved over millions of years against unrelenting environmental selection pressures i.e. adaptation by natural selection. Human selection over a subsequent 5000 years or so has added further viticultural refinements to those gene-based adaptive features.