Issue link: http://winesandvines.uberflip.com/i/59998
GRAPE GRO WING county faces if funding for GWSS man- agement is inadequate. Being a partially infested county, nursery shipments coming in from GWSS-infested counties are not in- spected. Trapping for GWSS adults is done in non-infested areas, and if an infestation is found, it is treated. However, there is only one crew available for treating infes- tations in a county that stretches from the foothills of the Sierra Nevada in the east, across the San Joaquin Valley to the foot- hills of the Coast Range in the west. Research reports The rest of the symposium was devoted to reports from researchers. A poster ses- sion offered researchers without a speak- ing slot the opportunity to present their most recent research results. Summaries of these presentations are available on the PDCP website. To me, one of the most exciting recent developments from the PDCP is that three research projects have reached the stage of field testing. You can watch videos about them at the PDCP Board website, where the scientists describe the projects in their own words. One field test is being carried out near the University of California, Riverside, by Dr. Abhaya Dandakar, a research scientist from UC Davis. He is working with two different transgenic grapevine cultivars developed from laboratory and Dr. Andy Walker of UC Davis is using conventional breed- ing techniques to develop PD-resistant cultivars. greenhouse research. One cultivar has been genetically transformed to produce a protein that prevents the spread of Xy- lella fastidiosa (Xf), the PD-causing bac- teria, once it has been introduced into the vine. The other cultivar has been geneti- cally transformed to produce a protein that kills Xf once it is introduced into the vine. The field trial consists of graft- ing a normal, non-transgenic grape cane to a transgenic grape cane. The question being tested in the field is whether the The Kuriyama Value™ Wine and Beverage Hoses POLYWIRE® PLUS Suction & Discharge CLEARBRAID® Discharge Owned and operated by third generation grape growers, S & L Vineyards supplies bulk grapes, juices and wines to large and small wineries. WSTF™ Series Suction & Discharge FT™ Series Suction 350LL Series Washdown Suction & Discharge 408LL Series ™ Kuriyama of America, Inc. 360 E. State Parkway • Schaumburg, IL • 60173-5335 USA (847) 755-0360 • Toll-Free FAX: (800) 800-0320 International FAX: (847) 885-0996 sales@kuriyama.com www.kuriyama.com Hand selected grapes are packed in half- ton cardboard containers and shipped in refrigerated trailers directly to your facility via your preferred method and carrier. S & L Vineyards can be reached at 866.214.7273 or sales@slvineyards.com Wines & Vines MARCH 2012 65 Grown in Lodi/Woodbridge and the Sierra Foothills where the climate is warm and dry in the summers and cool and moist in the winters, our premium wine grapes are harvested at optimum brix levels, custom processed based on customer preference and placed in cold storage. transgenic part of the cane will produce the protein that will then be transported through the graft union to the non-trans- genic portion of the cane. Then, when Xf is introduced into this portion of the cane, the Xf either will not spread or will be killed, depending on which transgenic cultivar is represented in the plant. A field trial being done by Dr. Steve Lindow from UC Berkeley has focused, in part, on Xf behavior within the grape- vine. He discovered that Xf produces a small signal molecule that, when re- ceived by another Xf cell, triggers the cell to become sticky so that it no longer moves in the grapevine vessel and there- fore does not cause PD. The hypothesis is that if a cell receives this signal when first introduced into the grapevine, the Xf will become sedentary and not spread and cause PD. Dr. Lindow's lab has developed trans- genic grapevine material that produces this signal molecule. The field trial is designed to test the effectiveness of this material in preventing PD in the test grapevines. The trial will test two strat- egies: One is with the entire grapevine being transgenic and producing the sig- nal molecules; the other is with the root- vinifer a