Bruce Reisch

Since joining the Cornell faculty in 1980, my efforts led to the development of new wine and table grape varieties, as well as new grape breeding techniques. Between 1980 and my retirement in 2023, the program released 15 new grape varieties - eleven wine grapes (cooperatively with the Dept. of Food Science and Technology) and four seedless table grapes. The grape breeding program emphasized the development of new wine varieties combining wine quality with disease resistance and cold tolerance. We developed flavorful, attractive table grapes, as well. Traditional breeding was combined with newer approaches to develop complete maps of grapevine chromosomes, and to study functional gene expression. In addition to my research responsibilities, I was Chair for over 10 years of the Grape Crop Germplasm Committee, a national committee overseeing U.S. Department of Agriculture efforts to preserve wild and cultivate grapevines. My studies led to keynote talks at international conferences, and visits to research stations and the grape growing regions of France, Italy, Germany, Portugal, Israel, Hungary, Turkey, Thailand, Switzerland, China and Japan. My laboratory hosted graduate students and researchers from many parts of the world, including Japan, Chile, Brazil, Pakistan, France, South Africa, Germany, Hungary, Korea, Israel, Nepal, and China.

Journal Publications

Google Scholar profile and publications.

• Zou, C., A. Karn, B. Reisch, A. Nguyen, Y. Sun, Y. Bao, M.S. Campbell, D. Church, S. Williams, X. Xu, C.A. Ledbetter, S. Patel, A. Fennell, J. Glaubitz, M. Clark, D. Ware, J.P. Londo, Q. Sun, and L. Cadle-Davidson. 2020. Haplotyping the Vitis collinear core genome with rhAmpSeq improves marker transferability in a diverse genus.  Nature Communications
• Zou, C., M. Massonnet, A. Minio, S. Patel, V. Llaca, A. Karn, F. Gouker, L. Cadle-Davidson, B. Reisch, A. Fennell, D. Cantu, Qi Sun, and J.P. Londo. 2021. Multiple independent recombinations led to hermaphroditism in grapevine. Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci. 118 (15):e2023548118.
• Karn, Avinash, Luis Diaz-Garcia, Noam Reshef, Cheng Zou, David C. Manns, Lance Cadle-Davidson, Anna K. Mansfield, Bruce I. Reisch, and Gavin L. Sacks 2021. "The genetic basis of anthocyanin acylation in North American grapes (Vitis spp.)" Genes 12(12): 1962.
• Reshef, N., A. Karn, D.C. Manns, A.-K. Mansfield, L. Cadle-Davidson, B. Reisch and G.L. Sacks. 2022.  Stable QTL for malate levels in ripe fruit and their transferability across Vitis species. Horticulture Research 9: uahc009
• Alahakoon, D., A. Fennell, Z. Helget, T. Bates, A. Karn, D. Manns, A.K. Mansfield, B. Reisch, G. Sacks, Q. Sun, C. Zou, L. Cadle-Davidson, and J. Londo. 2022.  Berry anthocyanin, acid, and volatile trait analyses in a grapevine interspecific F2 population using an integrated GBS and rhAmpSeq genetic map.  Plants 11, no. 5:696
• Olson, J., C. Zou, A. Karn, B. Reisch, L. Cadle-Davidson, Q. Sun, and M. Clark. 2022. Genetic analyses for leaf variegation in hybrid grape populations (Vitis spp.) reveals two loci, Lvar1 and Lvar2.  HortScience 57(11):
• Yang, Y., J. Arro, C. Zou, M. Oravec, B. Reisch, and G.-Y. Zhong. 2026. First brassinosteroid-based dwarf mutant discovered and characterized in grapevine. Theoretical and Applied Genetics 139:147. https://doi.org/10.1007/s00122-026-05225-6