The dynamics of wild Vitis species in response to climate change facilitate the breeding of grapevine and its rootstocks with climate resilience

Abstract

Climate change presents significant challenges to agricultural suitability and food security, largely due to the limited adaptability of domesticated crops. However, crop wild relatives maintain greater diversity and are well adapted to various environments. This study evaluates the potential distributional responses of grapevine (Vitis vinifera L.) and its wild relatives (Vitis spp.) to future climate change using the maximum entropy model. We reveal that the annual mean temperature is the primary factor determining the potential distribution of cultivated grapes. By 2080, under the SSP585 scenario, suitable areas for wine and table grapes are predicted to decline by 1.5 million and 1.3 million km ², respectively. The results suggest that grape cultivation, especially for table grapes, is highly vulnerable to future climate change. In contrast, approximately 70% of wild grapes are projected to demonstrate robust adaptability to future conditions. For example, wild grapes from North America, such as Vitis rotundifolia and Vitis labrusca, and from East Asia, such as Vitis heyneana and Vitis davidii, are projected to demonstrate significant adaptability in response to future climate change. These wild grapes are valuable genetic resources for improving the resilience of cultivated grapes through rootstock development and breeding programs to face the climate change. Our results predict the potential future distribution areas of wild grapes and highlight the critical role of their genetic resources in grape breeding for promoting adaptation to climate change.

Acknowledgements

This work was supported by the National Natural Science Foundation of China (Grants No. 32300191, No. 32372662), the National Key Research and Development Program of China (2023YFD2200700), and Hainan Province Key Research and Development Project (ZDYF2024XDNY156). We are also particularly grateful for all members in the Zhou lab for the useful comments and discussions.

Author Contributions

ZM and YZ conceived and designed the project. TZ, ZL, XS and WP collected sample informations. MZ and XX analyzed data. MZ, XX, YZ and ZM wrote the original draft. All authors provided critical feedback and revised the manuscript.

Data availability

All data needed to evaluate the conclusions in this paper are presented in the paper and the supplementary information.

Conflict of interest statement

The authors declare no conflict of interest.

Supplementary data

Supplementary data is available at Horticulture Research online.

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