NASA Helps Spot Wine Grape Disease From Skies Above California

Aug 08, 2023

In a case study, scientists detected the costly infection in cabernet sauvignon grapevines before they showed symptoms visible to the human eye.

Withering molds, root-rotting bacteria, viruses, and other plant pathogens destroy an estimated 15% to 30% of global harvests every year. Early detection can make the difference between a failed crop and a treatable one.

Using an airborne science instrument developed at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Southern California, researchers have found that they can accurately spot the stealthy signs of a grape disease that inflicts billions of dollars in annual crop damage. The remote sensing technique could aid ground-based monitoring for this and other crops.

In a pair of new studies, researchers from JPL and Cornell University focused on a viral disease called GLRaV-3 (short for grapevine leafroll-associated virus complex 3). Primarily spread by insects, GLRaV-3 reduces yields and sours developing fruit, costing the U.S. wine and grape industry some $3 billion in damage and losses annually. It typically is detected by labor-intensive vine-by-vine scouting and expensive molecular testing. The first study is published in Phytopathology.

The research team wanted to see if they could help growers identify GLRaV-3 infections early and from the air by using machine learning and NASA's next-generation Airborne Visible/InfraRed Imaging Spectrometer (AVIRIS-NG). The instrument's optical sensor, which records the interaction of sunlight with chemical bonds, has been used to measure and monitor hazards such as wildfires, oil spills, greenhouse gases, and air pollution associated with volcanic eruptions.

It was during a 2020 campaign to map methane leaks in California that plant pathologist Dr. Katie Gold and her team seized the opportunity to pose a different question: Could AVIRIS-NG uncover undercover crop infection in one of the state's most important grape-producing regions?

"Like humans, sick plants may not exhibit outward symptoms right away, making early detection the greatest challenge facing growers," said Gold, an assistant professor at Cornell University and senior author of the new studies. In the case of grapevine leafroll virus, it can take up to a year before a vine betrays the telltale signs of infection, such as discolored foliage and stunted fruit. However, on the cellular level, stress is well underway before then, changing how sunlight interacts with plant tissue.

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Video: Why Your Food Future Could be Trapped in a Seed Morgue

In a world of PowerPoint overload, Rex Bernardo stands out. No bullet points. No charts. No jargon. Just stories and photographs. At this year’s National Association for Plant Breeding conference on the Big Island of Hawaii, he stood before a room of peers — all experts in the science of seeds — and did something radical: he showed them images. He told them stories. And he asked them to remember not what they saw, but how they felt.

Bernardo, recipient of the 2025 Lifetime Achievement Award, has spent his career searching for the genetic treasures tucked inside what plant breeders call exotic germplasm — ancient, often wild genetic lines that hold secrets to resilience, taste, and traits we've forgotten to value.

But Bernardo didn’t always think this way.

“I worked in private industry for nearly a decade,” he recalls. “I remember one breeder saying, ‘We’re making new hybrids, but they’re basically the same genetics.’ That stuck with me. Where is the new diversity going to come from?”

For Bernardo, part of the answer lies in the world’s gene banks — vast vaults of seed samples collected from every corner of the globe. Yet, he says, many of these vaults have quietly become “seed morgues.” “Something goes in, but it never comes out,” he explains. “We need to start treating these collections like living investments, not museums of dead potential.”

That potential — and the barriers to unlocking it — are deeply personal for Bernardo. He’s wrestled with international policies that prevent access to valuable lines (like North Korean corn) and with the slow, painstaking science of transferring useful traits from wild relatives into elite lines that farmers can actually grow. Sometimes it works. Sometimes it doesn’t. But he’s convinced that success starts not in the lab, but in the way we communicate.

“The fact sheet model isn’t cutting it anymore,” he says. “We hand out a paper about a new variety and think that’s enough. But stories? Plants you can see and touch? That’s what stays with people.”

Bernardo practices what he preaches. At the University of Minnesota, he helped launch a student-led breeding program that’s working to adapt leafy African vegetables for the Twin Cities’ African diaspora. The goal? Culturally relevant crops that mature in Minnesota’s shorter growing season — and can be regrown year after year.

“That’s real impact,” he says. “Helping people grow food that’s meaningful to them, not just what's commercially viable.”

He’s also brewed plant breeding into something more relatable — literally. Coffee and beer have become unexpected tools in his mission to make science accessible. His undergraduate course on coffee, for instance, connects the dots between genetics, geography, and culture. “Everyone drinks coffee,” he says. “It’s a conversation starter. It’s a gateway into plant science.”