South Africa Wine Research Projects

2. VITICULTURE RESEARCH PROJECT IN PROGRESS

MAINTENANCE OF VIRUS GARDEN

P04000069 Prof Gerhard Pietersen, Patho Solutions Ongoing

AIM AND RELEVANCE: Detection, diagnosis and characterisation of viruses is costly and time-consuming. It is crucial to retain the information generated on virus sources by maintaining them as reference material. Plant virus populations must be kept in their respective living hosts and must be protected from getting infected with any other viruses or strains. Such reference sources are critical as positive controls when testing for specific viruses, for developing new diagnostic or detection tests, and in future studies on Vitis virus transmission, variability, impact, control and resistance. Therefore, the availability of such infected plants is essential for future virus research. This project aims to maintain and expand Vitis viral sources for future research purposes. The collection of characterised virus sources is a valuable resource for many future studies on Vitis viruses in South Africa. To ensure its practical value, we have created a database and are in the process of populating it with all historical data on each source, the provenance and source location in the collection. This database, once approved by south Africa Wine for public use, will serve as a valuable tool for the industry in future projects. In addition, the collection will be expanded through a systematic process. We will primarily acquire pure sources of South African Vitis viruses as they are identified in research projects, and also sources of any novel and previously unknown viruses, even if in mixed infections

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SOUTH AFRICA WINE RESEARCH 2024