Growth and photosynthetic responses to copper in wild grapevine

•We evaluate physiological responses to Cu in Vitis vinifera ssp. sylvestris.•V. vinifera ssp. sylvestris can survive external Cu levels of up to 23mmolL−1.•Growth of V. vinifera ssp. sylvestris is unaffected by up to 35mgkg−1 of foliar Cu.•This subspecies is more tolerant to Cu than cultivated varieties of grapevine. The present study evaluates the tolerance and accumulation potential of Vitis vinifera ssp. sylvestris under moderate and high external Cu levels. A greenhouse experiment was conducted in order to investigate the effects of a range of external Cu concentrations (0–23mmolL−1) on growth and photosynthetic performance by measuring gas exchange, chlorophyll fluorescence parameters and photosynthetic pigments. We also measured the total copper, nitrogen, phosphorus, sulphur, calcium, magnesium, iron, potassium and sodium concentrations in the plant tissues. All the experimental plants survived even with external Cu concentrations as high as 23mmolL−1 (1500mg Cu L−1), although the excess of metal resulted in a biomass reduction of 35%. The effects of Cu on growth were linked to a reduction in net photosynthesis, which may be related to the effect of the high concentration of the metal on photosynthetic electron transport. V. vinifera ssp. sylvestris survived with leaf Cu concentrations as high as 80mgkg−1 DW and growth parameters were unaffected by leaf tissue concentrations of 35mg Cu kg−1 DW. The results of our study indicate that plants of V. vinifera ssp. sylvestris from the studied population are more tolerant to Cu than the commercial varieties of grapevine that have been studied in the literature, and could constitute a basis for the genetic improvement of Cu tolerance in grapevine.