Grapevine (Vitis vinifera L.) is globally recognized as the most extensively grown and economically significant crop, primarily due to its association with the wine industry. This species possesses a remarkable ability to adapt to various abiotic stresses, like extreme temperatures or UV radiation, and the response is determined by several regulatory mechanisms, with changes in metabolite composition.

Metabolomics is an omics technology that holds promise in agricultural research, becoming an indispensable tool in various plant sciences studies, such as to elucidate adaptive responses under abiotic stresses for use in crop improvement. In this study, different grapevine cultivars were distinguished using metabolomics tools and the active role of metabolites under heat stress conditions was also elucidated.

Leaves from three different grapevine cultivars were collected from field-growing plants at different periods during ripening, under high summer temperatures. Metabolite extraction was performed using 100 mg of ground leaves with 1 mL methanol/water (1:1), followed by three cycles of vortex / ice for 1 min each. After centrifugation, metabolites were recovered and analyzed by FT-ICR-MS (Maia et al., 2020).

The metabolite extracts from the different V. vinifera cultivars were analyzed by FT-ICR-MS following an untargeted metabolomics approach. Principal component analysis (PCA) showed that all the different cultivars were separated, with all time-points clustering together, further confirmed by hierarchical clustering analysis (HCA).

Metabolomics can be utilized as a phenotyping tool for distinguishing cultivars by analyzing key signatory metabolic markers and elucidate the mechanisms that confer tolerance to high temperatures in grapevine.

Acknowledgments

This work was financially supported by national funds through the Foundation for Science and Technology (FCT ) under Project UIDB/05183/2020.