2nd Place: The role of berry injuries and Drosophila fruit flies in sour rot disease development

Sour rot is an economically important disease in vineyards in wet and humid regions. Insects, especially Drosophila fruit flies, are relevant to sour rot directly as a vector and indirectly through their ability to disintegrate berries that promote sour rot. Growers are intensively applying insecticides targeting flies to manage this serious plant disease. However, we did not know the role of other common insects in vineyards in promoting sour rot, such as yellow jackets and grape berry moth, which cause grape injuries and also potentially transmit several disease-related microbes. Our objective was to assess whether yellow jackets and grape berry moth damage to berries interact with Drosophila melanogaster to increase sour rot disease. We did not observe much impact of grape berry moth on sour rot severity. However, when berries were subjected to treatments such as yellow jackets and mechanical damage, disease severity increased, especially in the presence of Drosophila melanogaster, compared to undamaged control and treatments without flies. This study has guided us to elucidate the role of multiple insects in sour rot etiology, providing new insights into sustainable disease management strategies.