Grapevine Disease and Disease Management: Challenges, Approaches and Perspectives

A special issue of Agriculture (ISSN 2077-0472). This special issue belongs to the section "Crop Protection, Diseases, Pests and Weeds".

Deadline for manuscript submissions: closed (15 April 2023) | Viewed by 6075

Special Issue Editors

Shamir Research Institute, Katsrin 1290000, Israel
Interests: phytoplasma; trunk disease; plant tissue-culture; endophytes; biocontrol agents; host-pathogen interaction
Shaham (Extension Service), Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development, Kiriat Shemona 10200, Israel
Interests: viticulture; plant protection; induced resistance; host-pathogen interaction

Special Issue Information

Dear Colleagues,

Viticulture is one of the most important perennial crops in the history of agriculture from ancient eras to modern times. During that period, growers are constantly struggling with multiple pathogens that threaten to negatively affect grapevine yield and longevity. These pathogens, including insects, fungi, bacteria, and viruses, make grapevines one of the most chemically treated crops in modern agriculture. In addition, growers lead a continuous and increasingly frustrating fight to prevent the establishment of pathogens that currently direct measures to control them are unavailable. On the other hand, an increase in pathogen resistance to chemicals occurs in regard to other pathogens, which forces growers to increase pesticide concentrations but with less effective results.

The increasing demand to decrease pesticide use meets an increase in knowledge and understanding of the biotic and abiotic factors affecting pest development. Furthermore, acceleration of means to collect online data and constant escalation in computation power to analyze it lead to the development of decision support systems in an attempt to minimize chemical use.

Therefore, the main goal of this Special Issue is to publish high-quality articles focusing on recent scientific progress and innovation in the field of grapevine disease control that will eventually result in higher plant longevity and better yield quantity and quality. Specifically, we welcome articles on practical agronomic means to reduce pest development, novel friendly chemicals and biocontrol agents, decision support systems to reduce pesticide needs, and novel information on pest biology and disease etiology.

Dr. Vered Naor
Dr. Tirtza Zahavi
Guest Editors

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Keywords

  • grapevine
  • disease
  • fungi
  • bacteria
  • phytoplasma
  • virus
  • control
  • management
  • plant resistance
  • biological control

Published Papers (3 papers)

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Research

11 pages, 866 KiB  
Article
An Effective Hybrid Fungicide Containing Tea Tree Oil and Difenoconazole for Grape Powdery Mildew Management
by Moshe Reuveni, Cristobal J. Arroyo and Shmuel Ovadia
Agriculture 2023, 13(5), 979; https://0-doi-org.brum.beds.ac.uk/10.3390/agriculture13050979 - 28 Apr 2023
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Abstract
Grape powdery mildew caused by Erysiphe necator (Schw.) Burr. is a destructive disease in vineyards. Synthetic fungicides are the main tool to combat this disease. The search for new alternatives to reduce pesticide usage and tactical approaches for resistance management encouraged us to [...] Read more.
Grape powdery mildew caused by Erysiphe necator (Schw.) Burr. is a destructive disease in vineyards. Synthetic fungicides are the main tool to combat this disease. The search for new alternatives to reduce pesticide usage and tactical approaches for resistance management encouraged us to develop the novel strategy that we report here. We evaluated the efficacy of a new premixed hybrid fungicide containing the demethylation inhibitor (DMI) difenoconazole and essential tea tree oil (TTO), derived from the Melaleuca alternifolia plant, against grape powdery mildew in seven field trials and two large-scale demonstration trials conducted in two different regions in the world, including Chile and Israel. Foliar sprays of difenoconazole-TTO were applied as a preventive treatment in field trials at 40–80 up to 80–160 gr/ha active ingredient, and they were highly effective in controlling powdery mildew on the fruit clusters of both wine and table grapes in experimental and large-scale demonstration trials and provided up to 99% efficacy in disease incidence and severity compared with the untreated control. Difenoconazole-TTO was as or more effective than other DMI fungicides, including difenoconazole, a pre-mixed fungicide boscalid-pyraclostrobin, or treatments that included various fungicides applied in rotation or mixtures of fungicides. The results suggest that a combination of difenoconazole-TTO with a reduced synthetic chemical load can be included in powdery mildew control programs for grapevine as a strategic approach in fungicide resistance management in vineyards. Full article
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15 pages, 2537 KiB  
Article
Evolutionary Analysis of Grapevine Virus A: Insights into the Dispersion in Sicily (Italy)
by Andrea Giovanni Caruso, Sofia Bertacca, Arianna Ragona, Slavica Matić, Salvatore Davino and Stefano Panno
Agriculture 2022, 12(6), 835; https://0-doi-org.brum.beds.ac.uk/10.3390/agriculture12060835 - 09 Jun 2022
Cited by 1 | Viewed by 1566
Abstract
Grapevine virus A (GVA) is a phloem-restricted virus (genus Vitivirus, family Betaflexiviridae) that cause crop losses of 5–22% in grapevine cultivars, transmitted by different species of pseudococcid mealybugs, the mealybug Heliococcus bohemicus, and by the scale insect Neopulvinaria innumerabilis. [...] Read more.
Grapevine virus A (GVA) is a phloem-restricted virus (genus Vitivirus, family Betaflexiviridae) that cause crop losses of 5–22% in grapevine cultivars, transmitted by different species of pseudococcid mealybugs, the mealybug Heliococcus bohemicus, and by the scale insect Neopulvinaria innumerabilis. In this work, we studied the genetic structure and molecular variability of GVA, ascertaining its presence and spread in different commercial vineyards of four Sicilian provinces (Italy). In total, 11 autochthonous grapevine cultivars in 20 commercial Sicilian vineyards were investigated, for a total of 617 grapevine samples. Preliminary screening by serological (DAS-ELISA) analysis for GVA detection were conducted and subsequently confirmed by molecular (RT-PCR) analysis. Results showed that 10 out of the 11 cultivars analyzed were positive to GVA, for a total of 49 out of 617 samples (8%). A higher incidence of infection was detected on ‘Nerello Mascalese’, ‘Carricante’, ‘Perricone’ and ‘Nero d’Avola’ cultivars, followed by ‘Alicante’, ‘Grecanico’, ‘Catarratto’, ‘Grillo’, ‘Nerello Cappuccio’ and ‘Zibibbo’, while in the ‘Moscato’ cultivar no infection was found. Phylogenetic analyses carried out on the coat protein (CP) gene of 16 GVA sequences selected in this study showed a low variability degree among the Sicilian isolates, closely related with other Italian isolates retrieved in GenBank, suggesting a common origin, probably due to the exchange of infected propagation material within the Italian territory. Full article
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16 pages, 1559 KiB  
Article
Epidemiological Survey of Grapevine Leafroll-Associated Virus 1 and 3 in Sicily (Italy): Genetic Structure and Molecular Variability
by Andrea Giovanni Caruso, Sofia Bertacca, Arianna Ragona, Slavica Matić, Salvatore Davino and Stefano Panno
Agriculture 2022, 12(5), 647; https://0-doi-org.brum.beds.ac.uk/10.3390/agriculture12050647 - 29 Apr 2022
Cited by 4 | Viewed by 1888
Abstract
Background: the most widely distributed and virulent Grapevine leafroll-associated viruses (GLRaV) that affect grapevine are GLRaV-1 and GLRaV-3, transmitted semi-persistently by different mealybugs and soft scales, mainly causing downward rolling of the leaf margins and interveinal reddening. Methods: the main objectives of this [...] Read more.
Background: the most widely distributed and virulent Grapevine leafroll-associated viruses (GLRaV) that affect grapevine are GLRaV-1 and GLRaV-3, transmitted semi-persistently by different mealybugs and soft scales, mainly causing downward rolling of the leaf margins and interveinal reddening. Methods: the main objectives of this study were to investigate the genetic structure and molecular diversity of GLRaV-1 and GLRaV-3 in 617 samples from 11 autochthonous Sicilian grapevine cultivars, ascertaining their presence and spread. The detection was implemented by serological and molecular analyses and subsequently phylogenetic analyses on selected Sicilian isolates were conducted. Results: in total, 33 and 138 samples resulted positive to GLRaV-1 and GLRaV-3, with an incidence of 5.34% and 22.36%, respectively; 9 out of the 11 cultivars resulted positive, while the presence of both viruses was not found in ‘Grillo’ and ‘Moscato’ cultivars. Conclusions: phylogenetic analyses of the coat protein (CP) gene of 12 GLRaV-1 selected sequences showed a close relationship with European isolates; the discrete nucleotide differentiation and positive selection could demonstrate a current increase in population fitness. The phylogenetic analyses of the CP gene of 31 GLRaV-3 Sicilian CP sequences demonstrates a close relationship between Sicilian and different countries isolates; a certain stability of GLRaV-3 in the different cultivars analyzed is suggested by the discrete differentiation nucleotide and negative selection of the Sicilian isolates. Full article
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