Abstract
Powdery mildew, caused by the obligate biotrophic ascomycete Erysiphe necator, is one of the most destructive grapevine diseases worldwide. Cultivars of Vitis vinifera L, for wine and table grape production, are all susceptible to E. necator, whose attacks result in severe epidemics under the warm and dry conditions of the Mediterranean basin. The aim of the present study was to compare the susceptibility of different grapevine cultivars to E. necator by an in vitro assay for assessing the potentiality of this method in breeding programs for resistance to the pathogen. Leaves of 12 grapevine cultivars were spot-inoculated in vitro with about 10 conidia from five different isolates of E. necator, using colony growth and conidiation 3 wk post-inoculation as indicators of susceptibility to the disease. A remarkable difference was observed between highly susceptible cultivars like ‘Baresana’, ‘Malvasia’, ‘Bianca’, and ‘Italia’, and the less susceptible ‘Alphonse Lavallée’ and ‘Ohanez’, in accordance with their behavior in the field. No statistically significant differences were found in the virulence of E. necator isolates.
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Editor: J. Subramanian
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Miazzi, M.M., Hajjeh, H.R. & Faretra, F. An in vitro method to evaluate grapevine cultivars for Erysiphe necator susceptibility. In Vitro Cell.Dev.Biol.-Plant 46, 363–367 (2010). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11627-010-9289-4
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s11627-010-9289-4