Anthocyanin content and composition in four red winegrape cultivars (Vitis vinifera L.) under variable irrigation

Abstract

Aim: The aim of this study was to determine and compare anthocyanin content and profile under variable irrigation regimes in four red grape cultivars (Vitis vinifera L.), the Greek indigenous cvs. Agiorgitiko and Xinomavro, alongside Syrah and Grenache noir.Methods and results: Three irrigation treatments were applied in a 6-year-old vineyard comprising all four varieties in a block design, starting at bunch closure (E-L 32) through harvest of 2012 and 2013: full irrigation (FI) at 100% of crop evapotranspiration (ETc), deficit irrigation (DI) at 50% of ETc and non-irrigated (NI). The identification of the compounds was performed by HPLC. Results showed that, under the hot summer conditions of the Greek climate, the four cultivars had a similar response regarding vigor and yield parameters, with values increasing with water supply. Anthocyanin concentration was maximized under non-irrigated conditions in all cultivars, but anthocyanin profile and relative distribution of individual anthocyanins among irrigation treatments showed a strong cultivar effect.Conclusion: Xinomavro seemed to favor the synthesis of more stable forms of anthocyanins under limited water supply (acylated over non-acylated and tri-oxygenated & methoxylated on the B-ring over di-oxygenated & hydroxylated) while Agiorgitiko had an opposite behavior, which might imply a need for a different irrigation strategy.Significance and impact of the study: To the best of our knowledge, this is the first comparative report of anthocyanin composition and profile in berry skin, under contrasting water status, for the two most important red winegrapes of Greece.

Review of water deficit mediated changes in vine and berry physiology; Consequences for the optimization of irrigation strategies

“…In this context, monitoring berry volume variations and sugar accumulation in response to irrigation could provide critical information to better assess vineyard response to water deficit in combination with other factors. This is even more important considering that fruit composition respond differently to water stress for different varieties, as shown for Cabernet-Sauvignon vs Shiraz (Hochberg et al, 2015) or for Greece's autochthonous varieties Agiorgitiko and Xinomavro (Theodorou et al, 2019) or Italian grape cultivars Montepulciano and Sangiovese (Palliotti et al, 2014). Those results illustrate how changes in secondary metabolism in response to water stress are specific to each cultivar, therefore irrigation threshold and frequency could be defined according to the unique varietal specific response of fruit composition to water stress.…”

“…These examples illustrate the dependency of vineyard architectural features on the regulation of leaf and berry temperature. Several studies with different cultivars, showed that berry temperature increases when water stress increases and that this sensitivity to high temperatures is genotype dependent (Carvalho et al, 2016;Theodorou et al, 2019;Zarrouk et al, 2016a). As shown by several studies, berry temperature is of crucial importance for the synthesis and degradation of quality determining compounds.…”

“…Besides an overall increased accumulation of phenylpropanoids (Chorti et al, 2016;Koundouras, 2018) several studies show an alteration in composition of flavonoids and anthocyanins towards tri-hydroxylated anthocyanins (3′,4′,5′hydroxylated: delphinidin, petunidin, malvidin) (Castellarin et al, 2007a;Cook et al, 2015;Ollé et al, 2011) and some report increased proanthocyanidin concentration and polymerization in grape berry skins (Cáceres-Mella et al, 2017;Kyraleou et al, 2016), whereas others report higher catechin and total polyphenol concentration (Zsófi et al, 2014). Interestingly, the modulation of anthocyanin structure in response to water deficit appears to be highly varietal dependent (Niculcea et al, 2014;Theodorou et al, 2019).…”

Grape Berry Secondary Metabolites and Their Modulation by Abiotic Factors in a Climate Change Scenario–A Review

“…Anthocyanins composition (the relative portion of individual anthocyanins, the ratio of di-oxygenated vs. tri-oxygenated side-ring forms, the ratio of acylated vs. non-acylated derivatives, etc.) is variable among grapevine cultivars (Monagas et al, 2003 ; Theodorou et al, 2019 ) and can be modified by abiotic factors as discussed in later sections.…”

Varietal Differences of Prokupac, Evita and Čokot Zemun Based on Their Anthocyanins Content in Grape Skin Extract

“…The presence of acylated anthocyanins may be very important for wine color since they participate in intra/molecular co/pigmentation processes, thus increasing the intensity of the wine color [15] . Also, non‐acylated anthocyanins are more sensitive to oxidation reactions in berries, while acylated ones represent a more stable form of anthocyanins to oxidative effects increasing that way color stability [16] . According to some authors, [7,17] the percentage of acylated anthocyanins and in particular, those in form of acetates, are those that most contribute to varietal differences.…”