By Matthew Daneman

The grapevine fanleaf virus is a tiny pathogen with a big footprint, leaving
withered grape crops and widow's peak-like indentations on grape leaves in
vineyards from Europe to California.

But tucked away in four acres of a northern California vineyard are the
fruits of one Ontario County biotechnology company: grape plants genetically
modified to resist the virus, somewhat akin to the way childhood
vaccinations prevent diseases.

Vitis Biosciences Inc., based at Cornell University's state Agricultural
Experiment Station in Geneva and using Cornell-devised plant biotechnology,
is busy raising money along with rootstock resistant to the fanleaf virus.

Any variety of grape vine could then be grafted onto that rootstock, said
Chief Executive Ramon L. Garcia, who also is president of the biotechnology
consulting firm InterLink Biotechnologies. That New Jersey company is one of
the shareholders in Vitis.

To make the roots resistant, a chunk of DNA from the virus is introduced
into the cells of the grape plant, with those cells then bred into full
plants.

That bit of DNA works much like a vaccine, turning on the plant's natural
defense mechanisms against the virus, said Marc Fuchs, an assistant
professor at the ag station's department of plant pathology and the research
director for Vitis.

Similar genetic modification techniques developed at Cornell were used in
the 1990s to stop a virus decimating Hawaii's papaya crop, Garcia said.

According to Vitis, close to 3 million acres of vineyards in France, Italy,
Germany and California are infected with the virus, and grape yield from
infected plants can be down as much as 80 percent.

While not a huge problem in California's Napa Valley region, said David
Whitmer, Napa County agricultural commissioner, "for those who have it, it's
certainly significant."

"You have a lot of investment in the development of a vineyard," Whitmer
said. "Those vines are intended to thrive and do well for 20, 30, 40, 50
years. When you end up having a significant issue like fanleaf virus, it can
really reduce the viability of that vineyard. From a business perspective,
you may not have even have paid off the debt on the original planting" by
the time the yield starts declining.

Vitis Biosciences is a collaboration among Cornell, Rochester venture
capital firm Excell Partners, Chilean grape biotechnology company GenVitis
SA and InterLink Biotechnologies.

The grapevine fanleaf work is 8-year-old GenVitis' first foray into the U.S.
marketplace, Garcia said. The company first got interested in Cornell's
grape biotechnology when it licensed an enzyme developed to make grapes
resistant to a certain kind of fungus.

While Vitis Biosciences hopes to also offer its rootstock to European
growers, the company will first focus on California growers because European
public sentiment is less open to use of genetic modification in food and
beverages, Garcia said.

The current field testing is being done in part to find whether the genetic
material in the roots will travel up the stem to the leaves and grapes,
which theoretically it shouldn't, Garcia said.

The four acres of modified roots planted in June in California will be
monitored and tested for the next four years as the researchers also
identify the plants that are most resistant and continue to breed those.

Even as Vitis is developing the genetically modified root technology, it
also is putting together a nontraditional business model ? it plans to sell
the rootstock to lower-end wineries, but use a subscription-based model for
high-end wineries.

The high-end wineries would get the rootstock for free but Vitis would sell
subscriptions to wine drinkers.

www.checkbiotech.org