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Are the effects of winter temperatures on spring budburst mediated by the bud water status or related to a whole-shoot effect? Insights in the apple tree

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In apple, the overwintering bud appears hydraulically isolated from the parent stem. Spring budburst seems more related to a whole-shoot effect than to the water status of the individual bud during winter dormancy.

Abstract

The effects of winter temperatures, i.e., during dormancy, on shoot architecture are well known with budburst preferentially in the distal or the proximal part of the parent shoot in cold and mild winter conditions, respectively. However, the link with the overwintering bud water status is still scarcely documented. Our study was developed on four apple (Malus domestica Borkh.) cultivars covering a range of chilling requirements from low (‘Condessa’) to medium (‘Granny Smith’) and high (‘Royal Gala’, ‘Starkrimson’), and maintained in either cold (1,428 h below 7.2 °C) or mild (99 h below 7.2 °C) fluctuating winter temperatures. Our aim was to analyze xylem conductance at the stem-to-bud junction, and relative water content and water potential of the bud itself, for buds situated in the distal third of one-year-old shoots. From dormancy to the pre-budburst stage, xylem conductance at the stem-to-bud junction increased or decreased or did not show consistent changes depending on the cultivar and the winter temperature treatment. Whatever the cultivar, there were no significant trends across dates for the effects of winter temperatures on bud water potential and relative water content. Water potential had negative values, between −4.35 and −2.24 MPa, across cultivars and winter temperature treatments without a consistent relationship with actual spring budburst frequency. These results suggested that lateral buds were hydraulically isolated from the parent stem during winter until a few days before budburst. We discussed that the temperature-related spring budburst was likely more related to a whole-shoot effect mediated by hormonal, hydraulics and/or sugar signaling, than to the individual bud water status during dormancy.

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Author contribution statement

JD Schmitz collected the data, made most of the analyses and interpretation of results, and wrote a first draft of the manuscript. M Bonhomme and H Cochard contributed to the interpretation of results. FG Herter, GB Leite and JL Regnard defined the main lines of the experiment. PE Lauri managed the study, and contributed to the analyses and interpretation of results, and to the writing of the manuscript.

Acknowledgments

This work was partly funded by the French-Brazil bilateral CAPES-COFECUB Research Program 2009–2013, n° Sv 686/10. [CAPES (Brazil, Coordination for the Improvement of Higher Level Personnel); COFECUB (French Committee for the Evaluation of Academic and Scientific Cooperation with Brazil)], and by the CNPq (National Council for Scientific and Technological Development) for grant support in Brazil.The authors thank Sébastien Martinez and Gilbert Garcia for taking care of the trees and help in measurements, Dr Thierry Améglio for helpful suggestions, and two anonymous reviewers for helpful comments on a first version of the manuscript.

Conflict of interest

The authors declare that they have no conflict of interest.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Federal University of Pelotas, PPGA-FAEM, LabAgro, C. P. 354, Pelotas, 96010-900, Brazil

    Juliano Dutra Schmitz & Flavio Gilberto Herter

  2. INRA, UMR 547 PIAF, Site de Crouël, 63100, Clermont-Ferrand, France

    Marc Bonhomme & Hervé Cochard

  3. Clermont Université, Université Blaise Pascal, UMR 547 PIAF, BP 10448, 63000, Clermont-Ferrand, France

    Marc Bonhomme & Hervé Cochard

  4. Epagri, Rodovia Admar Gonzaga 1347, C. P. 502, Florianópolis, SC, 88034-901, Brazil

    Gabriel Berenhauser Leite

  5. Montpellier SupAgro, UMR AGAP, 34060, Montpellier, France

    Jean-Luc Regnard

  6. INRA, UMR AGAP, 34098, Montpellier Cedex 5, France

    Pierre-Eric Lauri

Authors
  1. Juliano Dutra Schmitz
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  2. Marc Bonhomme
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  4. Flavio Gilberto Herter
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  5. Gabriel Berenhauser Leite
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Correspondence to Pierre-Eric Lauri.

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Communicated by G. Wieser.

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Schmitz, J.D., Bonhomme, M., Cochard, H. et al. Are the effects of winter temperatures on spring budburst mediated by the bud water status or related to a whole-shoot effect? Insights in the apple tree. Trees 29, 675–682 (2015). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00468-014-1145-4

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