Li Shaonan

Salinity is a long-standing global environmental stressor of terrestrial agroecosystems, with important implications for viticulture sustainability, especially in arid and semi-arid environments. Salt-induced physiological and biochemical disruptions to grapevines undermine yield and long-term vineyard sustainability. This review aims to integrate physiological, molecular, and omics-based insights to elucidate how grapevine rootstocks confer salinity tolerance and to identify future breeding directions for sustainable viticulture. This review critically assesses the ecological and molecular processes underlying salt stress adaptation in grapevine (Vitis spp.) rootstocks, with an emphasis on their contribution to modulating scion performance under saline conditions. Core adaptive mechanisms include morphological plasticity, ion compartmentalization, hormonal regulation, antioxidant defense, and activation of responsive genes to stress. Particular emphasis is given to recent integrative biotechnological developments—including transcriptomics, proteomics, metabolomics, and genomics—that reveal the intricate signaling and regulatory networks enabling rootstock-mediated tolerance. By integrating advances across eco-physiological, agronomic, and molecular realms, this review identifies rootstock selection as a promising strategy for bolstering resilience in grapevine production systems confronted by salinization, a phenomenon increasingly exacerbated by anthropogenic land use and climate change. The research highlights the value of stress ecology and adaptive root system strategies for alleviating the environmental consequences of soil salinity for perennial crop systems.

Abiotic stresses are the major factors limiting grape production in the world. They significantly impede grape growth and production. However, during the grape production stage, plant growth regulators play a crucial role in regulating grape developmental progress, especially methyl jasmonate (MeJA). The exogenous MeJA participates in different crop production, gene expression, signaling transduction, natural defense, stress resistance, hormone balance, osmotic regulation, cellular metabolic process, and thermostatic regulation. Grape crop resilience to different abiotic and biotic stresses was overall fascinated by exogenous applications of MeJA. Therefore, in this review, we focus on the MeJA hormone in abiotic stress relief and discovery, application, significance, occurrence, growth via development, stress responses, interaction, molecular modulation, and biological signaling in the grape. Exogenous MeJA in abiotic stress responses explained the physiological change and the signaling pathway has emerged as one of the key plant metabolic processes vs. photosynthetic productivity, playing a substantial role in gene expression, quality parameters, fruit attribution, protein differentiation, cellular programming, and reprogramming, and tolerance mechanism. MeJA hormone has been discovered after a broader study as abiotic stress-responsive methyl jasmonate/Jasmonic acid, which could be a pivotal target not only for grape production but also for other crops.

Grapevine is one of the most extensively cultivated and economically important fruit crops, renowned for its nutritional and health benefits. However, salt stress severely impairs its growth, development, and yield. Rootstocks play a crucial role in enhancing salt stress tolerance in grafted grapevines, however the underlying mechanisms particularly at morphophysiological and transcriptomic study remain poorly understood and require further investigation. Therefore, in the present study, morphophysiological and transcriptomic sequencing was performed on tolerant grapevine rootstock ‘SO4’ and susceptible ‘Beida’ in response to salt stress and control group. Morphophysiological results showed that the plant height, stem diameter, root length, root weight, number of roots, root surface area, malondialdehyde, soluble sugar, proline, antioxidants enzymes after 12 days of salt stress boosted more significantly in ‘SO4’ than ‘Beida’. Furthermore, transcriptomic analysis studies showed that a total of 2268, 1066, and 1135 differentially expressed genes (DEGs) were identified in ‘SO4’, and ‘Beida’ rootstock after 0, 6, and 12 days. The metabolic pathways, pyruvate metabolism, plant hormone signal transduction, biosynthesis of secondary metabolites, and osmotic adjustment were the primary response systems in both grapevine rootstock under salt stress. Different transcription factors involving bHLH, AP2, ERF, HSF, WRKY, MYB, and MYB-related had more annotated in ‘SO4’ than ‘Beida’ rootstock under salt stress. In addition, using weighted gene coexpression analysis (WGCNA), five modules (MEblack, MEblue, MEyellow, MEgreen, and MEgrey) were highly associated with salinity stress tolerance. Among them, MEblack was the most positive (upregulated) module color in ‘SO4’, while it was negatively correlated with ‘Beida’ rootstocks under salt stress. Furthermore, 10 DEGs related to the tolerance response were selected and validated based on transcriptomic data and RT-qPCR. Our findings outline a tolerance mechanism model for rootstocks under abiotic stress, providing necessary information for improving the tolerance of grapevine genotypes.

The present study scrutinized the influence of foliar application of methyl jasmonate on the physiochemical characteristics and antioxidant enzymes of two grapevine rootstocks, ‘SO4’ (high drought tolerance) and ‘101-14’ (low drought tolerance), under drought conditions. The grapevine seedlings were sprayed with methyl jasmonate at 100 µM at 3-day intervals throughout the 28-day drought stress period. The results showed that treating both rootstocks with methyl jasmonate greatly minimized the adverse effects of reactive oxygen species caused by drought. Specifically, methyl jasmonate substantially reduced levels of malondialdehyde, hydrogen peroxide, and ion leakage while increasing photosynthetic pigment levels, soluble carbohydrates, proline, protein, and total phenols content. Additionally, applying methyl jasmonate improved the action of antioxidant enzymes like superoxide dismutase, ascorbate peroxidase, and catalase. This made the membranes of leaves more solid during drought conditions. Methyl jasmonate treatment reduced oxidative damage and improved mineral element (P, K, Mg, Ca, Fe, and Zn) accumulation in the green leaves of treated plants as opposed to the drought-untreated plants. These results were more noticeable in ‘SO4’ compared to ‘101-14’ rootstocks. Based on these results, applying methyl jasmonate at 100 µM to the leaves of grapevines may be considered a novel strategy for mitigating water scarcity in the grapevine production system.

The aim of this study was to find out how different postharvest temperatures and MeJA treatments affected the quality of table grapes, their antioxidant properties, and the amount of hydrogen peroxide and malondialdehyde they contained. For the investigation, postharvest Shine Muscat table grapes were treated with low and high temperatures and MeJA at concentrations of 10 and 100 μmol/L. The results indicated that treating grape berries with MeJA at concentrations of 10 and 100 μmol/L effectively reduced weight loss and mitigated the increase in soluble solid content while also mitigating the decrease in berry firmness and titratable acidity. Consequently, this treatment preserved the sensory and nutritional qualities of the berries and extended their shelf life. Meanwhile, the application of MeJA at a concentration of 10 μmol/L demonstrated superior effectiveness compared to the 100 μmol/L concentration and resulted in a significant enhancement of antioxidant activities by increasing levels of superoxide dismutase, catalase, ascorbate peroxidase, and polyphenol oxidase. Furthermore, the levels of hydrogen peroxide and malondialdehyde in the samples increased for all treatments throughout the storage period. Nevertheless, the levels of hydrogen peroxide and malondialdehyde generation following MeJA treatment remained much lower compared to samples treated at room temperature and low temperature. Therefore, the postharvest application of MeJA at a concentration of 10 μmol/L could play a critical role as a stimulator of fruit quality as well as enhance physicochemical parameters and antioxidant activities for extending the shelf life of grapes during storage.