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Brock University has launched a critical new program to protect grape growers from viruses that affect their wines.
According to an article in the Brock newsletter, the university is launching a new facility that maintains high-quality, virus-free plant materials and eliminates viruses and other pathogens of concern in grapevines.
The national grapevine germplasm repository project, led by Sudarsana Poojari, Senior Staff Scientist at Brock University’s Cool Climate Oenology and Viticulture Institute (CCOVI), is funded by the Ontario Grape and Wine Research Inc. (OGWRI), Canadian Grapevine Certification Network (CGCN-RCCV) and Brock University.
“With changing climatic conditions and the need for new and agronomically improved grapevine varieties that suit local climatic conditions, it is critical for Ontario’s grape and wine industry to have access to virus-free grapevine material of varieties that are both popular and of regional importance,” says Poojari.
The facility is only the second in Canada, and the only one in Ontario, the country’s largest wine producer by acreage and litres produced.
This initiative has provided a tremendous opportunity for CCOVI and Brock University to serve as a backup facility to maintain the National Grapevine Germplasm Repository at the Canadian Food Inspection’s Plant Virus Diagnostic Facility in Saanich, BC, says Poojari.
Having a ready supply of virus-free material “creates opportunities in domestic and global trading for Canada, benefiting growers, nursery owners, custom propagators and academic researchers in viticultural and breeding programs,” he says.
Grapevines are vulnerable to infection from many different types of plant viruses, which are commonly spread in vineyards by planting new vines that have been propagated from infected grapevine material. Some viruses can be spread by certain species of insects in vineyards.
Once a plant virus infects a grapevine, there is no cure, says Poojari. Some plant viruses negatively impact vine performance, reducing yield, fruit quality and over wintering success of the vine.
“It’s important to start with virus-free vines and to maintain them by following the best pest management practices,” he says. “We don’t want to start with virus-infected vines and assume that they will do well in field conditions.”
CGCN-RCCV Chair Hans Buchler says the network is “excited about the development of an additional clean plant repository for the Canadian grape and wine sector.”
“We hope this is a first step toward substantially increasing the availability of virus-tested, second generation propagating material to be used by the certified virus-free Canadian grapevine nursery trade,” he says. “This will be a great contribution to the sustainability and growth of the domestic grape and wine industry.”