As indicated by FAOSTAT, grapevine (Vitis vinifera L.) is one of the world's most significant fruit crops. Like all the other horticultural crops, this is plagued by a variety of diseases each year, depending on the causal agents, cultivar susceptibility, and climate location. Grapevine trunk diseases (GTDs) are presently among the most devastating diseases in viticulture worldwide because the long-term sustainability of vineyards is strongly affected. The economic losses generated by the costs of chemical and/or biological control products and their application, are very high. Esca complex dieback, Eutypa dieback, Botryosphaeria dieback and Phomopsis dieback are the main GTDs in mature vineyards. Others like Petri disease or Black-foot disease (Campylocarpon, Cylindrocladiella, Dactylonectria, Ilyonectria and Neonectria spp. ) are the major GTDs affecting young vineyards.
The complexity of GTDs results from the diversity of associated fungi, the undetermined period of latency within the vine (asymptomatic status), the erratic foliar symptom expression from one year to the next, and, probably correlated with all of these points, the lack of efficient strategies to control them. In this context, a better knowledge of the fungal pthogens’ biology correlated with the identification methods is necessary for the prevention and the fight against GTDs in vineyards all over the world. Also, a connection between the biology of these fungi with the climate and environmental conditions would be helpful in finding new prevention and cure strategies that ultimately will serve the viticulturists, grapevine projectionists, and scientists in the field.
The scope of this Research Topic will focus on research articles and reviews covering the following aspects:
· The fungal pathogens causing GTDs in vineyards of different regions of the world
· The influence of the environmental conditions on the GTDs pathogens biology
· Methods of GTDs pathogen identification
· Methods of grapevine protection against GTD as based on the biological aspects of the host and of the pathogens.
As indicated by FAOSTAT, grapevine (Vitis vinifera L.) is one of the world's most significant fruit crops. Like all the other horticultural crops, this is plagued by a variety of diseases each year, depending on the causal agents, cultivar susceptibility, and climate location. Grapevine trunk diseases (GTDs) are presently among the most devastating diseases in viticulture worldwide because the long-term sustainability of vineyards is strongly affected. The economic losses generated by the costs of chemical and/or biological control products and their application, are very high. Esca complex dieback, Eutypa dieback, Botryosphaeria dieback and Phomopsis dieback are the main GTDs in mature vineyards. Others like Petri disease or Black-foot disease (Campylocarpon, Cylindrocladiella, Dactylonectria, Ilyonectria and Neonectria spp. ) are the major GTDs affecting young vineyards.
The complexity of GTDs results from the diversity of associated fungi, the undetermined period of latency within the vine (asymptomatic status), the erratic foliar symptom expression from one year to the next, and, probably correlated with all of these points, the lack of efficient strategies to control them. In this context, a better knowledge of the fungal pthogens’ biology correlated with the identification methods is necessary for the prevention and the fight against GTDs in vineyards all over the world. Also, a connection between the biology of these fungi with the climate and environmental conditions would be helpful in finding new prevention and cure strategies that ultimately will serve the viticulturists, grapevine projectionists, and scientists in the field.
The scope of this Research Topic will focus on research articles and reviews covering the following aspects:
· The fungal pathogens causing GTDs in vineyards of different regions of the world
· The influence of the environmental conditions on the GTDs pathogens biology
· Methods of GTDs pathogen identification
· Methods of grapevine protection against GTD as based on the biological aspects of the host and of the pathogens.
