NON-TECHNICAL SUMMARY: Horn Farms Inc needs to routinely produce sufficient annual seed stocks to support commercial production of key canna varieties. Thus the greenhouse diagnostic and sanitization program is necessary to meet production goals. Accurate visual disease assessment is carried out at 2 and 4 weeks of growth (instead of 10 and 16 weeks). Genus specific PCR primers were developed which detect all viruses in 3 tests. Plants are maintained in the greenhouse for 4-6 weeks and then moved to the fields at Horn Farms for use as planting stocks. The greenhouse is immediately replanted and the workflow repeats. Thus, the goal of this SBIR is to shift production to a higher level to meet market demands. Germplasm screening and quality control is essential for consumer confidence in the products sold by Horn Canna Farms and the goal is to have sufficient inventory of selected varities that Horn Canna Farms can use this program in promotional advertising and sales. This SBIR is essential to develop a solid infrastructure and revenue drivers that are vital for the longevity of Horn Farms. OBJECTIVES: The goals of this proposal are to: a) develop multiplex RT-PCR diagnostics for use in identifying clean rhizomes and b) expand bulblet cultures and treatment with antiviral compounds that will yield sufficient clean rhizomes as plant stocks for field production at Horn Canna Farms. This critical need for low cost and rapid diagnostic tests can be achieved by reducing the number of diagnostic tests that must be performed to a single multiplex PCR test c) produce 5000 virus-free rhizomes for use as seed stocks in field production. This proposal will further enable us to confirm the effective use of RT-PCR detection of CaYMV. In this proposal we plan to develop a multiplex RT-PCR detection that will detect all five canna infecting viruses. This is essential to reduce labor, costs and manpower.
