Dr. Wenping Qiu, associate research professor of agriculture at Missouri State University – Mountain Grove, received a $230,483 grant from the National Clean Plant Network (NCPN), a program of the U.S. Department of the Agriculture. This new funding will assist in establishing The Midwest Grapevine Tissue-Culture and Virus Testing Laboratory as it generates, certifies, maintains and delivers virus-tested grape varieties that are suitable for the Midwest grape and wine industry, according to Qiu.

“Grapevine viruses pose a threat to the grape and wine industries. Hybrid grapevines are mostly grown in Midwest regions that have distinct climate and soil conditions as well as high disease pressures,” said Qiu. “New surveys of viruses clearly indicated that there is an epidemic of severe virus or virus-like diseases in Midwest vineyards.”

Sixty percent of the funding will be used to purchase major instruments for tissue-culturing, serological and DNA-based detection of grapevine viruses. The funds will also allow additional researchers to be hired and an RTV to be purchased to transport grapevines, planting pots and farm tools from the laboratory and greenhouses to vineyards.

“The current laboratory will be upgraded to the national levels with the new purchased equipment,” Qiu said. “It took two years to get to this final stage of establishing a state-of-the-art laboratory with the USDA-NCPN fund. This is indeed a big breakthrough for a non-land-grant university.”

Many of the grape varieties grown in the Midwest region are American and American-French hybrids which are more challenging for tissue-culturing. Rapid growth of new grape planting in the region also presents a challenge, according to Qiu.

“The increasing number of new grape growers in the Midwest region and emerging threats of grapevine viruses require urgent education of new and established grape growers on the importance of planting grapevines that are free of targeted viruses,” he added.

The Midwest Grapevine Tissue-Culture and Virus Testing Laboratory will coordinate and harmonize with other regional centers of excellence under the auspice of the NCPN in the sharing of methodology and materials and in the standardization of virus-testing procedures.

According to the Web site for the NCPN, the goal of the organization is to protect U.S. specialty crops, such as grapes, nuts, apples, peaches and other fruits, from the spread of economically harmful plant pests and diseases. The Center of Grapevine Biotechnology in the department of agriculture at Missouri State is an active partner of the NCPN.

Missouri State University is one of five universities that were selected for funding to support the regional clean plant program by the NCPN for the fiscal year 2009.

For more information, contact Qiu at (417) 547-7517.

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