Main Leaf Polyphenolic Components of Berry Color Variant Grapevines and Their Acclimative Responses to Sunlight Exposure

Abstract

Grapevine leaf synthesizes a wide variety of bioactive secondary metabolites, including polyphenols, which are also key components in ensuring development and growth of the whole plant even under adverse environmental conditions. Our study evaluates the nonanthocyanin polyphenolic composition in grapevine leaves of three varieties of Gohér conculta (Vitis vinifera L.) native to Hungary. A high performance liquid chromatography (HPLC) system including a diode array detector (DAD) coupled to a time-of-flight mass spectrometer (q-TOFMS) was successfully applied to profile intact glycoconjugate forms in samples. In-source fragmentation was utilized in order to provide structural information on the compounds. Using this method, the presence of 16 polyphenolic metabolites were confirmed, and eight of them were subjected to further quantification in sun acclimated and half shaded leaves. Intracellular microimaging detected accumulation of flavonols in cell nuclei, cell wall and chloroplasts. Our findings demonstrated that Gohér conculta—a special grapevine taxon of our viticultural heritage with berry color variants—is a suitable model to study the interaction between genetic and environmental factors in determination of grapevine phenolic composition.

Keywords

• grapevine leaves
• polyphenolic profile
• HPLC-ESI-qTOFMS
• fluorescence microimaging
• sunlight acclimation