Brief Summary of Minutes of Annual Meeting

The 2004 annual meeting of SERA IEG-14 was hosted by Texas A&M University on September 21-23 in Austin, Texas. The first evening was a welcome dinner for the participants. Perhaps the highlight of the meeting was the vineyard and winery tour which took the group to the Texas Hill Country, one of the principal winegrowing regions of the state. A featured topic for discussion during the vineyard tour was Pierce's disease (PD) and the glassy-winged sharpshooter. In addition to the tours of two vineyards and wineries, the group had the opportunity to interact with the Texas multidisciplinary PD research team and spent a considerable amount of time discussing the issue. The business meeting was held to elect new officers and discuss planned activities and State representatives presented summary research reports. Keith Striegler was elected as Chair and Sharon von Broembsen as Secretary for 2004-2005. George Ray McEachern was presented with the William Nesbitt Award in recognition of his contributions to southern viticulture. The minutes of the Business Meeting are available at http://sera-ieg-14.tamu.edu/business04.pdf The Institute of Food Science and Engineering, University of Arkansas Division of Agriculture, compiled the summary reports of the contributing states for distribution at the meeting. The state summary reports are posted on the SERA IEG-14 website at http://sera-ieg-14.tamu.edu/accomplishments.html

Collaborative research and Extension activities among participants New variety releases and production systems; product development and product quality evaluation Research and Extension publications and other education and technical information materials There are 152 wineries in the region that produce in excess of 4,500,000 gallons of wine annually. A conservative estimate of the yearly gross retail value of these wines exceeds one quarter of a billion dollars. Grape and wine production is an important alternative agricultural enterprise. Work on Pierces Disease and other diseases affecting susceptible grape species will continue to be important. The suitability of muscadine grapes for wine and other value-added products continues to be a fertile field for investigation in the South. All of our activities are consistent with, and speak to fulfillment of, our five stated Objectives with the outputs among those listed for each of those objectives. The SERA IEG-14 website http://sera-ieg-14.tamu.edu/ has been developed to provide participants the ability to share information and more importantly provides a mechanism to widely disseminate research results and information to all stakeholders. Efforts to increase the visibility of the Groups activities will allow recognition of the value of those activities to our stakeholders. The OXBO International Corporation has acquired the license to manufacture the Morris-Oldridge Vineyard Mechanization System Patent. The system is currently being manufactured and marketed under their name of vMech® Vineyard Mechanization System. Throughout the 2002, 2003, and 2004 seasons research was conducted at French Camp Vineyards, a 1750-acre, Region III, commercial vineyard near Paso Robles, California to refine the vMechâ units and the viticultural management systems that will best compliment them for total vineyard mechanization. Large scale studies (20 to 40-acre blocks) were established to compare hand vs. machine production for both yield and quality on six different cultivars. Preliminary results from the 2003 study show actual yields obtained using mechanization very close to the target yield demanded by the winery. The results for five cultivars were extremely encouraging as the fruit quality parameters of the hand and machine treatments were almost identical. Muscadines, already an important regional grape, has enormous potential to play an even more important role in the grape and wine activities of the Region. Efforts to provide extensive and intensive research and Extension materials concentrating on muscadines included publishing of The Muscadine Experience funded by a grant from the USDA's Initiative for Future Agriculture and Food Systems. Cooperative efforts of the University of Arkansas Division of Agriculture, Oklahoma State University, Mississippi State University, Alcorn State University and the University of Arkansas Pine Bluff seek to help small farmers become more profitable, adding stability to the family farm, in this case by seeking ways to add value to traditional raw products. The booklet has been distributed to 383 libraries and 94 vineyards and wineries in the Region as well as Arkansas County Extension Agents  Agriculture. Distribution has created a great deal of interest and evoked many requests for additional copies, particularly from state grape grower and winery groups. The Muscadine Experience is Research Report 974 available in a PDF format at http://www.uark.edu/depts/agripub/Publications/bulletins/ Plans for the coming year include continuing the effort to add SERA IEG-14 website links to existing and developing Muscadine resources. Realizing that Pierce's Disease (PD) is a limiting factor in many Southern states to successful production of many grape species, and after visiting with members of the Texas Pierce's Disease Program, the potential and need for disseminating information on PD, including the development of a PD distribution map based on known insect vectors, was established. Photos of diseases and insect vectors affecting grapes in the Region will also be added to the SERA IEG-14 website.

Gray, D. J. 2003. Plant growth and development - artificial seeds. Encyclopedia of Applied Plant Science. Elsevier Science Ltd., Oxford. 1305-1310. Gray, D. J., S. Jayasankar and Z. Li. 2004. Vitaceae (Grape Vitis spp.), In: R. E. Litz (Ed.), Biotechnology of Fruit and Nut Crops. CAB International Wallingford, U.K.. (In Press). Hatfield, J., J.R. Morris and R.T. Threlfall. 2003. Minimizing color degradation in blush wines. J. Food Quality 26:367-380. Jayasankar, J. and D. J. Gray. 2003. In vitro selection for disease resistance in plants  an alternative to genetic engineering. AgBiotechNet 5: 1- 5. Johnson, D.T. 2004. History and management of Japanese beetle in Arkansas and Oklahoma. Proc. Oklahoma and Arkansas Horticulture Industries Show 23: 62-66. Li, Z. and D. J. Gray. 2003. Effect of five antimicrobial peptides on the growth of Agrobacterium tumefaciens, Eschericia coli and Xylella fastidiosa. Vitis 42: 95-97. Li, Z., S. Jayasankar and D. J. Gray, Bi-directional duplex promoters with duplicated enhancers significantly increase transgene expression in grape and tobacco. Trans. Res., 13, 2004, 143-154. Mertens-Talcott, S.U. Talcott, S.T., Percival, S.S. 2003. Low concentrations of quercetin and ellagic acid synergistically influence proliferation cytotoxicity and apoptosis in MOLT-4 human leukemic cells. J.Nutr. 133:2669-2674. Main, G.L. and J.R. Morris. 2004. Leaf-removal effects on Cynthiana yield, juice composition, and wine composition. Am. J. Enol. Vitic. 55(2): 147-152. Morris, J.R. 2004. Vineyard Mechanization - A Total Systems Approach. Wines & Vines April: 20-23. Morris, J.R. and P.L. Brady. 2003. Milestones in fruit and vegetable production, processing and quality. Hort.Sci.38(5):968-976. Morris, J.R. and R.K. Striegler. 2005. Grape juice: Factors that influence quality, processing technology, and economics. In: Processing fruits  Science and Technology, 2nd edition (D.M. Barrett, L. Somogyi, and H. Ramaswamy, eds.) pp. 585-616, CRC Press, Boca Raton. Striegler, R.K., P.M. Carter, J.R. Morris, J.R. Clark, R.T. Threlfall and L.R. Howard. 2004. Yield, quality, and nutraceutical potential of selected muscadine cultivars grown in southwestern Arkansas. Hort Technology. (In press). Walker, T.L., J.R. Morris, R.T. Threlfall and G.L. Main. 2004. Comparison between ion exchange systems with tartaric acid addition for pH reduction of Syrah wine. J. Food Quality. (In press). Williamson, J. R. and D.T. Johnson. 2004. Effects of grape berry moth management practices and landscape on arthropod diversity in grape vineyards in the southern United States. HortTechnology (In Press). US Patents: Gray, D. J. and Z. T. Li, Multi-functional genetic markers and uses thereof. Provisional US Patent Ser. No. 60/465,015. 2003. Li, Z. T. and D. J. Gray, Nucleotide sequences of 2S albumen gene and its promoter and uses thereof. US Patent Application Ser. No. 10/382,066. 2003.