VR 039-16 Grape Rootstock

Abstract

grape breeding, disease resistance, fanleaf degeneration Fanleaf degeneration is one of the most serious grapevine diseases. Caused by grapevine fanleaf virus (GFLV), it is compounded by the feeding damage of Xiphinema index Thorne and Allen, the nematode vector. The disease progresses rapidly, and yields of infected vines eventually decrease up to 80% Efforts to control the vector with nematicides were not completely successful, as explained in a review by These and similar results led to the initiation, more than 20 years ago, of a breeding program at the Univ. of California, Davis, to develop a grapevine rootstock resistant to fanleaf degeneration. This rootstock breeding program continues with the goal of combining sources of resistance to GFLV with sources of resistance to X. index. We report on VR 039-16, an interim release from that program.