LEPSE Univ Montpellier

1 Introduction Hybridization, the interbreeding of divergent genotypes (Anderson and Stebbins Jr. 1954), whether within species (intraspecific) or between species (interspecific), has captivated biologists for generations. Charles Darwin, in his seminal work On the Origin of Species, recognized hybridization as a natural process that generates variation, a fundamental element of natural selection (Livezey and Darwin 1953).

Extreme events associated with climate change increasingly threaten agriculture. Experimenting on a grapevine diversity panel suddenly exposed to a record heatwave in South France, we observed varietal responses ranging from complete tolerance to severe burning. We uncovered a handful of genomic regions associated with extreme heat tolerance, showing that we may leverage genetic diversity for breeding perennial fruit crops capable of withstanding heatwaves.