Researchers aim to quash spread of rose rosette disease

Added on 17 October 2022

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Researchers aim to quash spread of rose rosette disease

Texas A&M AgriLife is leading a team of researchers to alleviate the estimated $10 million in annual disease-related loss to the rose industry due to rose rosette disease.

“The goal of our latest project is to meet the increasing demand for carefree and sustainable roses that require fewer inputs, are resistant to biotic and abiotic stresses, and have high ornamental quality,” says David Byrne, Ph.D.

Byrne, the Basye Chair in Rose Genetics, is co-leading the new project with Oscar Riera-Lizarazu, Ph.D., both Texas A&M AgriLife Research rose geneticists in the Texas A&M Department of Horticultural Sciences in the College of Agriculture and Life Sciences.

Their new project, “Developing Sustainable Rose Landscapes via Rose Rosette Disease Education, Socioeconomic Assessments, and Breeding RRD-Resistant Roses with Stable Black Spot Resistance,” received $4 million in funding from the USDA Specialty Crop Research Initiative and is outlined in a recent AgriLife Today post.