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Vineyard environments influence Malbec grapevine phenotypic traits and DNA methylation patterns in a clone-dependent way
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  • Anabella Varela,
  • Verónica Ibañez,
  • Rodrigo Alonso,
  • Diego Zavallo,
  • Sebastian Asurmendi,
  • Sebastian Gomez-Talquenca,
  • Carlos Marfil,
  • Federico Berli
Anabella Varela
Instituto de Biología Agrícola de Mendoza, CONICET-Universidad Nacional de Cuyo

Corresponding Author:[email protected]

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Verónica Ibañez
Instituto de Biología Agrícola de Mendoza, CONICET-Universidad Nacional de Cuyo
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Rodrigo Alonso
Catena Institute of Wine
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Diego Zavallo
Instituto de Agrobiotecnología y Biología Molecular (IABIMO), Instituto Nacional de Tecnología Agropecuaria (INTA), Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones Científicas y Técnicas (CONICET)
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Sebastian Asurmendi
Instituto de Agrobiotecnología y Biología Molecular (IABIMO), Instituto Nacional de Tecnología Agropecuaria (INTA), Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones Científicas y Técnicas (CONICET)
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Sebastian Gomez-Talquenca
EEA INTA
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Carlos Marfil
Instituto de Biología Agrícola de Mendoza
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Federico Berli
Instituto de Biología Agrícola de Mendoza
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Abstract

Clonal selection and vegetative propagation determine low genetic variability in grapevine cultivars, although it is common to observe diverse phenotypes. Environmental signals may induce epigenetic changes altering gene expression and phenotype. The range of phenotypes that a genotype expresses in different environments is known as phenotypic plasticity. DNA methylation is the most studied epigenetic mechanism, but only few works evaluated this novel source of variability in grapevines. In the present study, we analyzed the effects on phenotypic traits and epigenome of three Vitis vinifera cv. Malbec clones cultivated in two contrasting vineyards of Mendoza, Argentina. Anonymous genome regions were analyzed using Methylation-Sensitive Amplified Polymorphism (MSAP) markers. Clone-dependent phenotypic and epigenetic variability between vineyards were found. The clone that presented the clearer MSAP differentiation between vineyards was selected and analyzed through Reduced Representation Bisulfite Sequencing. Twenty-nine differentially methylated regions (DMRs) between vineyards were identified and associated to genes and/or promoters. We discuss about a group of genes related to hormones homeostasis and sensing that could provide a hint of the epigenetic role in the determination of the different phenotypes observed between vineyards and conclude that DNA methylation has an important role in the phenotypic plasticity and that epigenetic modulation is clone-dependent.
08 Jul 2020Submitted to Plant, Cell & Environment
08 Jul 2020Submission Checks Completed
08 Jul 2020Assigned to Editor
17 Oct 2020Published in Plant Cell Reports. 10.1007/s00299-020-02617-w