Grapevine Micropropagation for Production of Disease-Free Vines Berva Brock Junior, Organizational Leadership Program University of Wyoming, Sheridan Research and Extension Center

Grape Production in United States World’s most valuable fruit crop 10 – 12th most valuable agricultural crop in US 1.2 million workers in grape & wine industry National economic impact – $ 162 billion annually Wine America (National Association of Wines), 2008

Grapevine Propagation Techniques Cutting – Softwood and hardwood Layering – Air, mound, serpentine Budding (sometimes described as bud grafting) Grafting – Softwood (green grafting), hardwood (bench, bridge, inarch-approach, exarch, cleft, whip, etc.) In vitro culture – Micropropagation

Commercial Grape Propagation Double A Vineyards, NY 6 feet between rows, 12” between cutting rows and 2” between individual cuttings. 80,000 cuttings per acre (5,00000 – 8,00000 cuttings/yr.) Rooted cutting

Grapevine Propagation for the Homeowner Growth Flowering Rooting Growth, flowering and rooting in canes after 5 weeks of exposure to light

Limitations of Conventional Propagation Limited availability of elite planting material Problems with spreading insect, bacterial and viral diseases Insect – Phylloxera Bacteria – Agrobacterium, Pierce’s disease Viral – Leaf roll and fan leaf viruses

Pierce’s Disease Infection in Grapevines PD infected vine Vines dead from PD Xylem infection Leaf symptoms Affected shoots Affected berries

Control – No cure for infected vines. Uproot and burn vines Crown Gall Disease in Grape Control – No cure for infected vines. Uproot and burn vines

Viral Diseases Leaf roll infected vineyard Fan leaf infected vineyard Leaf roll infected vines Fan leaf infected vineyard Infected berries

Grapevine Micropropagation Micropropagation involves using apical meristems from actively growing shoots of field grown grapevines Shoot apical meristems are then placed onto plant growth medium with growth regulators for shoot proliferation Resulting shoots are then rooted, hardened under high humidity and then transferred outdoors

Micropropagation Protocol

Advantages of Micropropagation Production of bacterial and virus-free plants Rapid propagation of elite varieties Plants arising from tissue culture are uniform in growth, vigor, yield and quality

Source of Grape Germplasm

Grape Micropropagation Protocol Obtain shoot tips Shoot apical meristem Meristem after excision Growth of shoot apical meristem Shoot proliferation Shoot culture maintenance

Grape Micropropagation Protocol Rooting proliferated shoots Transfer to soil Acclimation Hardening Transfer to Green House

Himrod Data on Shoot Proliferation 12-21-12 Start Date Meristem after excision Proliferation after 4 weeks Himrod Start Date 12-21-12 # of nodes in dish Date of Data # of shoots in 4 weeks # of shoots In 8 weeks 5 1-23-13 39 1028 1-29-13 33 478 1-30-13 29 346

Future Studies Optimizing micropropagation protocols for additional 25 varieties Study performance of tissue cultured produced plants under field conditions

Acknowledgements UW College of Agriculture (Special Problems Fellowship awarded to Berva Brock) UW Agricultural Experiment Station (SREC) Department of Plant Sciences Wyoming Department of Agriculture