Grape growers and wineries regard the management of viral diseases of the vine as a top priority for the long-term sustainability of the sector. Winemakers are currently incurring losses in excess of $23 million a year as infected grapes produce lower yields and wineries reject more fruit. To replace currently infected acreage and allow for the constant renewal of vineyards, the industry needs access to 6.7 million locally produced, virus-free vines per year. There will be two distinct paths to implementation and commercialization. To meet these requirements, the Plant Production Centre of the Canadian Food Inspection Agency (CFIA) needs a rapid, cost-effective genomics solution that will replace more than 30 molecular and biological tests currently performed, which can take up to three years to complete. By implementing a high-throughput sequencing method at the CFIA, testing costs will be reduced, as will testing time for industry-priority varieties imported into Canada; the same applies to verification testing of certified foreign sources destined for commercial plantings. The reduction in testing time to 10 days enables grape growers to rapidly improve the health of their vineyards. Domestically, the Canadian Grapevine Certification Network (CGCN) markets high-throughput sequencing through its partner, the Cool Climate and Oenology Viticulture Institute, for the certification of breeding material in nurseries and vines obtained through the Sidney Plant Health Centre, as well as for the monitoring of production vineyards.
Academic Leaders/Institutions: Sudarsana Poojari (Brock University), Xuekui Zhang (University of Victoria) and Peter Moffett (Univeristé Sherbrooke)
Lead Genome Centers: Genome British Columbia, Génome Québec, Ontario Genomics