Abstract
The high copper (Cu) concentration in vineyard soils causes the increase of Cu toxicity symptoms in young grapevines. Recently, intercropping of grapevine and oat was shown to reduce Cu toxicity effects, modulating the root ionome. On these bases, the focus of the work was to investigate the impact of Cu toxicity of either monocropped or oat-intercropped grapevine rootstocks plants (196.17 and Fercal), at both phenotypic (i.e., root architecture), and molecular (i.e., expression of transporters) levels. The results showed a different response in terms of root morphology that are both rootstock- and cropping system dependent. Moreover, the expression pattern of transporter genes (i.e., VvCTr, VvNRAMP, and VvIRT1) in monocropped grapevine might resemble a Mn deficiency response induced by the excess of Cu, especially in Fercal plants. The gene expression in intercropped grapevines suggested rootstock-specific response mechanisms, depending on Cu levels. In fact, at low Cu concentrations, Fercal enhanced both root system growth and transporter genes expression; contrarily, 196.17 increased apoplast divalent cations accumulation and transporters expression. At high Cu concentrations, Fercal increased the expression of all bivalent cation transporters and, as previously observed, enhanced the release of root exudates, whereas the 196.17 only modulated transporters. In conclusion, our results might suggest that the different adaptation strategies of the two rootstocks to Cu toxicity could be mainly ascribable to a fine-tuning of bivalent cations transporters expression at root level.
Highlights
The continuous application of copper (Cu)-based fungicides in viticulture is inducing an increase of Cu concentration in vineyard soils worldwide (Mackie et al, 2012)
A darkening of the roots was observed with increasing Cu concentrations in both grapevine rootstocks independently from the growing condition (Figures 1, 2)
Different strategies and farming systems have been studied to reduce the effect of Cu toxicity on plants (Mackie et al, 2012)
Summary
The continuous application of copper (Cu)-based fungicides in viticulture is inducing an increase of Cu concentration in vineyard soils worldwide (Mackie et al, 2012). Copper Toxicity and Intercropping in Grapevine Rootstocks. Especially the young rootstocks featuring a shallow root apparatus, have to cope with the increasing metal concentration in soils and often exhibit symptoms of Cu toxicity. As previously observed in Arabidopsis thaliana, high Cu concentrations (i.e., 10 and 50 μM Cu) induced a reduction of the primary root growth and an increase of lateral roots development (Lequeux et al, 2010). The reduction of the root length due to Cu toxicity has been reported in soybean (Glycine max; Lin et al, 2007), tomato (Solanum nigrum and Solanum lycopersicum Al Khateeb and Al-Qwasemeh, 2014), and grapevines (Ambrosini et al, 2015). High levels of Cu induced root darkening, a thickening of root tips and a reduction of root hairs (Juang et al, 2012)
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