Nearly all cultivated grapevine varieties were developed from Vitis vinifera, but the most destructive grape diseases – the powdery and downy mildews and black rot - evolved on the numerous grape species which thrive in North America. It was commonly thought that V. vinifera and the East Asian Vitis species were susceptible to the American diseases, since these plants evolved in the absence of the pathogens. This assumption was proven incorrect, however, as several East Asia grape genotypes were shown to possess resistance against powdery and downy mildews. Recently, a Central Asian raisin variety, believed to be a pure V. vinifera, was reported to have resistance to powdery mildew (Kozma, et al., 2006). The ability of these Asian grapevines to resist the North American pathogens raise some intriguing biological questions about the co-evolution and the interaction of plants and pathogens.

Kozma, P., E. Kiss, S. Hoffmann, Z. Galbács, and T. Dula. (2006). Using the powdery mildew resistant Muscadinia rotundifolia and Vitis vinifera cv. Kishmish vatkana for breeding new cultivars. Proceedings of the 9^th International Conference on Grape genetics and Breeding. Udine, Italy.