UF Biotechnology Shows Remarkable Improvement for Florida Grapevine Crops

Only 30 minutes north of Orlando, the home of Disney World, a biotechnology technique called cisgenic engineering using same plant species is producing disease resistant grapevines at the University of Florida (UF). 

For Florida, agriculture is the second largest industry to tourism, and this region could potentially become a viable producer of palatable table and wine grapes.

An enthusiastic team of biologists and technicians led by Dennis J. Gray, Ph.D., Professor and Developmental Biologist thinks so, who have been at the center of creating one of the largest biotech grape research endeavors in the world and are producing some of the most significant results.

Florida’s grape biotech campus consists of a 14-acre vineyard and 1800 sq. ft. laboratory located at the Mid-Florida Research & Education Center in Apopka, Florida.  Gray (pictured below) is closely monitoring these promising results, and rightly so in hopes to culminate this 25-year project of cultivating grapes that could ultimately benefit healthier environmental outcomes and agricultural diversification in Florida.

According to Gray, “Cisgenic engineering has the potential to reduce spray cycles on grapes. This work will help reduce the harmful effects of pesticide use on the environment and crops.”  In other parts of the world, cisgenic engineering research and trials have also conferred similar societal benefits at the heart of genetic engineering pursuits.  

Would reducing pesticide use and developing marketable cultivars for wine and table grapes in Florida make sense through these biotech products? 

Consider biotech practices in other crops, for example, the apple, our most consumed fruit.  Apple transformation technology conducted in Chile has proven beneficial in reducing apple scab, a harmful disease that increases production costs and harmful effects on the environment.  Historically, apple species sustained genetic improvements as far back as the late 19^th and 20^th century, which now constitute the basis of most commercial cultivars.

In New Zealand and Australia, forage grasses is another important cisgenic engineering research effort that have produced useful traits for potentially reducing environmental problems and ensuring security of food supply.  Interest in cisgenic engineering research and its outcomes continues to grow through access to public databases and enhanced collaboration among breeders and bioinformatics researchers, according to the Chilean apple research project.

By definition, improving crop varieties through cisgenesis involves only genes from the plant itself or from a close relative (grape cell embryo, pictured right). Gray, a native Californian who came to UF as a young scientist to work on grapes, asked the question, “What if we could make a disease resistant grape that could withstand Florida’s hot and humid climate?” 

Current grapevine production in Florida has been susceptible to Pierce’s disease, a bacterial nemesis and a factor due to climate that has limited growers to producing only muscadine grapes, a large, thick- skinned variety cultivated from native grapes.

Through Gray’s investigation of several grape varieties, the hearty Thompson Seedless grape, number one grape in California, stands up to becoming the most likely market candidate to begin the inevitable rigors of regulatory trade testing.  As Florida is among the top three consumer regions in the United States for table and wine grapes, interest from growers and winemakers is growing.  As Gray said, “We believe we can energize the Florida viticulture industry.”

The cost benefit of this type of cisgenic engineering shows genetic engineering works, according to Gray.  And Gray added, “This approach will be here for the future one way or another. We know how to do it.”   That is a message of good cheer, for a healthier environment and agriculture crops.