Location: Horticultural Crops Production and Genetic Improvement Research Unit
Project Number: 2072-21000-058-035-I
Project Type: Interagency Reimbursable Agreement
Start Date: Oct 1, 2020
End Date: Sep 30, 2021
Objective:
1. Index and distribute to nurseries, or return to breeders, pathogen-tested berry plant material (Fragaria, Rubus, Vaccinium) to meet the needs of the industries in the U.S. Expand virus testing/diagnostic services to industry and stakeholders.
2. Monitor and report presence of known and novel viruses by state and trace to origin in the industry supply chain.
Approach:
Genotypes of interest will be tested for known graft-transmissible agents that infect the crop using biological indexing and laboratory techniques. If tests are negative, the material will be entered into G1 blocks and made available to industry. For cultivars under CIP, release from quarantine will be coordinated with USDA-APHIS and/or State Departments of Agriculture and then made available to growers. If tests are positive, the material will either be destroyed or
cleaned by therapy, retested for pathogens, and distributed when all pathogen tests are negative.
In the testing program, we test for all targeted viruses, phytoplasmas and for Xylella in berry crops to facilitate movement of plant material between states and for export.
If cultivars of interest to the berry industries are infected with graft transmissible-agents, the material will be subjected to therapy to remove the pathogens.
