Grapevine viruses can reduce vine performance, yield and longevity. Diagnosis currently relies largely on laboratory testing, which can limit how quickly results are available to support management decisions. A diagnostic method that can be used closer to the point of need could provide faster information about vine health, planting material and disease status.
The Vineyard Virus LAMP project is investigating whether loop-mediated isothermal amplification (LAMP) can provide a rapid and practical way to detect grapevine viruses outside a specialist laboratory.
The longer-term aim is to develop practical diagnostic tools that support surveillance, earlier detection and more informed management decisions in vineyards and propagation systems, with the potential to combine compatible virus targets into multiplex tests where technically feasible.
The assays are being developed for the Genie, the sameportable LAMP instrument platform used by AWRI-developed Brettanomyces LAMP technology, which is now being rolled out commercially by project partner Geneworks.
Progress to date
The project has developed and evaluated LAMP assays targeting several important grapevine viruses, including Grapevine leafroll-associated virus 1 (GLRaV-1), Grapevine leafroll-associated virus 3 (GLRaV-3), Grapevine virus A (GVA) and Grapevine Pinot gris virus (GPGV).
Work has included establishing suitable reference material, comparing LAMP results with PCR as the laboratory gold standard, and refining the assays to improve sensitivity, specificity and reliability.
The GLRaV-3 and GVA assays are the most advanced and are ready to progress into testing with a broader range of vineyard samples and under less controlled conditions. Further development is required for other targets. For GLRaV-1, the project is investigating the genetic diversity of Australian virus isolates so that primers can be designed to reliably detect locally occurring variants, while the GPGV assay requires further optimisation.
The project has also begun investigating whether compatible virus targets could be combined into a multiplex test, allowing more than one virus to be detected from the same sample.
Alongside assay development, work is considering what would be required to make the tests practical outside the laboratory. This includes simple sample preparation, reagent stability, packaging and manufacturing requirements, and engagement with commercial partners.
What’s next?
The next stage will focus on field validation of the GLRaV-3 and GVA assays using a broader range of vineyard samples and under less controlled conditions than laboratory testing. This will help establish how reliably the assays perform across different vines, virus concentrations and sample types, and whether the sample preparation and testing workflow is practical for use closer to the point of need.
Further development will also continue for GLRaV-1 and GPGV, alongside testing the feasibility of combining compatible virus targets into multiplex assays so that more than one virus could potentially be detected from the same sample.
The project will also continue to develop the pathway from a laboratory assay to a practical diagnostic product. This includes improving reagent stability, investigating dried or ready-to-use reagent formats, understanding manufacturing and packaging requirements, likely production costs and pricing, and working with potential users and delivery partners to understand how the tests would be supplied and used in practice.
Resources
Further information and resources will be added as the project progresses, including relevant project documents and research outcomes.