UC Davis Research Could Help Wine Industry Adapt To Climate Change

Scientists at UC Davis have identified new root traits that help grapevines resist drought, which could be beneficial as the western U.S. continues to face drought year after year. Viticulture and Enology Assistant Professor Megan Bartlett said the industry already has a pretty wide range when it comes to drought tolerant to drought sensitive already in existence in the in commercial root stocks.

“So the goal of this project was to look through kind of this diversity we already have and try to understand what traits are driving that, so we can really hone in on those traits when we’re breeding for even more drought tolerant root stocks into the future.”

The traits they’re focused on, Bartlett noted, capture what’s happen in the living cells of the root. She noted their research is still in the early stages, but she said this will be helpful information for the industry further down the road.

“So we’re interested in what genes are related to these traits so we can kind of accelerate that process of breeding for drought tolerant root stocks.  And so the goal is to be able to give this information to breeders so they can bring out new and improved root stock verities for growers a little bit further down the line.”

Researchers at the University of British Columbia and USDA’s ARS also contributed to this study.