Abscisic Acid’s Role in the Modulation of Compounds that Contribute to Wine Quality

Abstract

Abscisic acid (ABA) plays a crucial role in the plant responses to environmental signals, in particular by triggering secondary metabolism. High-altitude vineyards in Mendoza, Argentina, are exposed to elevated solar ultraviolet-B (UV-B) levels and moderate water deficits (WD), thus producing grapevine berries with high enological quality for red winemaking. Volatile organic compounds (VOCs) and phenolic compounds (PCs) accumulate in the berry skins, possess antioxidant activity, and are important attributes for red wine. The aim of the present study was to analyze the role of ABA in the modulation of these compounds in Vitis vinifera L. cv. Malbec wines by comparing the independent and interactive effects of UV-B, WD, and ABA. Two UV-B treatments (ambient solar UV-B or reduced UV-B), two watering treatments (well-watered or moderate water deficit) and two ABA treatments (no ABA and sprayed ABA) were given in a factorial design during one growing season. Sprayed ABA, alone and/or in combination with UV-B (specially) and WD (to a lower degree) increased low molecular weight polyphenols (LMWP), anthocyanins, but most noticeably the stilbenes trans-resveratrol and piceid. Under these treatments, VOCs were scarcely affected, and the antioxidant capacity was influenced by the combination of UV-B and WD. From a technological point of view, ABA applications may be an effective vineyard management tool, considering that it elicited a higher content of compounds beneficial for wine aging, as well compounds related to color.

Composition of Pinot Noir Wine from Grapevine Red Blotch Disease-Infected Vines Managed with Exogenous Abscisic Acid Applications

“…Phenolic compounds were the major category identified with positive-ionization LC-HRMS/MS ( Figure 3 ). Increases in trans-resveratrol and piceid were reported in ABA-treated Malbec cultivars [ 21 ], which is consistent with the untargeted LC-MS/MS results in the 2019 wines ( Figure 5 ) from our study. The untargeted LC-MS/MS analysis of wines in this study did not show the consistent effects of exogenous ABA on GRBV-positive Pinot noir.…”

“…It has been reported that ABA can have a positive effect on grape phenolic compounds by increasing the total anthocyanin and total phenolic content in grape berry skin at harvest [ 20 ]. ABA may increase low-molecular-weight polyphenols and anthocyanins in final wines [ 21 ]. It has been demonstrated that exogenous ABA can modulate transcription factors involved in the phenylpropanoid pathway differently to increase the amount of petunidin- and malvidin- type anthocyanins, which improve the skin color of grapes [ 22 ].…”

A One-Step Polyphenol Removal Approach for Detection of Multiple Phytohormones from Grape Berry

“…The spraying of IAA and Forchlorfenuron (CPPU) can delay the maturation process and change the flow of phenylpropane metabolic pathways [23,24]. In addition, there is a lot of evidence from the transcriptome and metabolome that ABA can respond to environmental signals such as solar ultraviolet-B (UV-B) radiation [25], water deficit [26,27] and high temperature [28], and greatly affect the ripening and quality of grape fruits [29][30][31]. However, there is still a lack of accurate quantification of multiple phytohormones and investigation of the trends of phytohormone changes in grape berries.…”

Impact of contrasting soils in a high-altitude vineyard of <i>Vitis vinifera</i> L. cv. Malbec: root morphology and distribution, vegetative and reproductive expressions, and berry skin phenolics

“…In 2018, even when environmental conditions measured at bunch level and water stress were not as limiting as in 2017, SS vines showed a reduction in vegetative growth and an increase in berry phenolics and antioxidant capacity. This scenario was also observed in 2016, a climatological milder season, suggesting that plant vigour and metabolic activity in highaltitude viticulture can be affected by other environmental factors, such as UV-B radiation (Alonso et al, 2016), when water and temperature are not limiting. At the 2017 harvest, DS vines presented more TP with no differences in TA compared to SS vines.…”

“…High UV-B radiation level has been shown to increase secondary antioxidant metabolites in berry skins, also affecting vegetative growth and fruit yield (Berli et al, 2013;Berli et al, 2015). Moreover, high levels of UV-B, especially when combined with other abiotic stresses such as moderate water stress, may cause a more prominent reduction in chlorophyll photosynthetic pigments and an increase in the accumulation of berry skin polyphenols, although with a reduction in yield, implying more severe stress conditions than if exposed to single abiotic stressors (Berli et al, 2015;Alonso et al, 2016;Doupis et al, 2020). Among other stressful factors, air temperatures above 35 °C decrease the biosynthesis of secondary metabolites (Mori et al, 2007;Zarrouk et al, 2016), as well as photosynthesis rate and vegetative growth (Galat Giorgi et al, 2019).…”