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Field Assessment and Diagnostic Methods for Detection of Grapevine Phytoplasmas

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Methodologies and Results in Grapevine Research

Abstract

Grapevine phytoplasma occurring in Europe belong to two different species and are associated with two grapevine yellows diseases: Flavescence dorée and Bois noir. The diagnosis of the phytoplasma infections is usually carried out by both visual observation of the symptoms and molecular assay. The symptom observation directly in the field is the prerequisite for a correct diagnosis; however, only the molecular test allows the exact identification of the phytoplasma species, which is fundamental for disease monitoring. Presently, in routine mass screening of grapevine samples it is advisable to use the real time PCR approach, which is fast, robust and sensitive, while nested PCR/RFLP or sequencing of the amplicons are required for a finer differentiation of the phytoplasma strains.

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Abbreviations

GY:

Grapevine yellows

FD:

Flavescence dorée

BN:

Bois noir

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Acknowledgments

All photos are courtesy of Dr. Michele Borgo, CRA-VIT, Conegliano (TV, Italy).

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Correspondence to Elisa Angelini .

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Angelini, E. (2010). Field Assessment and Diagnostic Methods for Detection of Grapevine Phytoplasmas. In: Delrot, S., Medrano, H., Or, E., Bavaresco, L., Grando, S. (eds) Methodologies and Results in Grapevine Research. Springer, Dordrecht. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-90-481-9283-0_16

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