A rapid method for generating sufficient amounts of uniform genotype-specific material from the woody perennial grapevine for ion transport studies

Experimentation with woody perennials may be difficult due to slow plant growth and a lack of sufficient amounts of uniform plant material. In this study, we sought to determine whether rooted leaves could be used as a substitute for whole plants in ion accumulation studies. Grapevine leaves are particularly amenable for rooting since their petioles are of sufficient length for dipping in rooting hormone and for holding the leaf above the soil surface. To determine whether rooted leaves would be useful for salinity experiments, we investigated the ion uptake characteristics of rooted leaves derived from a backcross population that differed in Cl- accumulation. Long-term ion accumulation studies conducted over several weeks and short-term radioactive uptake studies conducted over several hours were performed. The data showed that the Cl- content of rooted grapevine leaves from different genotypes grown at 25 and 50 mM NaCl was similar to data reported by others. Short-term radioactive uptake assays did not always reveal differences in uptake between the genotypes. Therefore, we suggest that rooted leaves under certain conditions may provide a space-efficient method for generating sufficient amounts of plant material. This material could be used for studying whole plant, molecular and electrophysiological aspects of ion transport and for conducting experiments where root material from specific genotypes is required.