In viticulture, grafting is used to propagate Phylloxera-susceptible European grapevines, thereby using resistant American rootstocks. Although scion-rootstock reciprocal signaling is essential for the formation of a proper vascular union and for coordinated growth, our knowledge of graft partner interactions is very limited. In order to elucidate the scale and the content of scion-rootstock metabolic interactions, we profiled the metabolome of eleven graft combination in leaves, stems, and phloem exudate from both above and below the graft union 5-6 months after grafting. We compared the metabolome of scions vs. rootstocks of homografts vs. heterografts and investigated the reciprocal effect of the rootstock on the scion metabolome. This approach revealed that (1) grafting has a minor impact on the metabolome of grafted grapevines when tissues and genotypes were compared, (2) heterografting affects rootstocks more than scions, (3) the presence of a heterologous grafting partner increases defense-related compounds in both scion and rootstocks in shorter and longer distances from the graft, and (4) leaves were revealed as the best tissue to search for grafting-related metabolic markers. These results will provide a valuable metabolomics resource for scion-rootstock interaction studies and will facilitate future efforts on the identification of metabolic markers for important agronomic traits in grafted grapevines.
Keywords: grafting; grapevine; metabolic profiles; phloem exudate; rootstocks; scion–rootstock interactions.