4. Ms. Rebeka Strah

Climate change is threatening the sustainability of viticulture around the world due to the recurrent drought events during the summer. Grape production is highly dependent on agroclimatic factors, water availability being one of the most important. The changing environment can also influence the incidence of plant diseases by promoting fungal infection. In this context, two new fungus-resistant grapevine genotypes, Cabernet Volos and Fleurtai were investigated, with emphasis on their response to water stress. The grapevine response to water stress was studied on the transcriptomic and metabolomic level by combining the analysis of high-throughput RNA-Seq and metabolite accumulation data with the data of plants’ stem water potential. The expression of approximately 800 genes and nine metabolites was found to be changed due to the decreased water potential in at least one of the studied cultivars by the newly developed FadSeqSes script. Besides a large group of the genes showed an important role in the response to water stress in both cultivars, smaller groups of genes with different expressions in Cabernet Volos and Fleurtai were identified. Moreover, correlation was found between the stress-responsive metabolites and their biosynthetic genes.