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Isolation, molecular characterization and virome analysis of culturable wood fungal endophytes in esca symptomatic and asymptomatic grapevine plants
Author(s) -
Nerva Luca,
Turina Massimo,
Zanzotto Alessandro,
Gardiman Massimo,
Gaiotti Federica,
Gambino Giorgio,
Chitarra Walter
Publication year - 2019
Publication title -
environmental microbiology
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 1.954
H-Index - 188
eISSN - 1462-2920
pISSN - 1462-2912
DOI - 10.1111/1462-2920.14651
Subject(s) - biology , mycovirus , human virome , isolation (microbiology) , botany , microbiology and biotechnology , genome , gene , genetics , rna , rna polymerase
Summary Europe is the world largest grape producer, but in recent years, the report of diseases due to infection by grapevine trunk pathogens (GTPs) is becoming one of the main constraints for viticulture. Among grapevine trunk diseases (GTDs), esca syndrome is one of the most complex, characterized by simultaneous infection of several fungi, which leads to important reduction in yield and quality. Previous characterization of fungal isolates associated with esca syndrome leads to the recognition of at least three important players: Phaeocremonium minimum , Phaemoniella chlamydospora and Fomitiporia mediterranea . Here we isolated and characterized molecularly fungal endophytes directly from field wood tissues of plants showing or not esca symptoms. In addition, to better characterize such collection, a deep RNA sequencing (100 M reads in paired‐end) to screen for mycovirus presence was performed. Thirty‐nine viral genomes were detected, 38 of which were putative new viral species; some of these viruses infected GTPs, including P. minimum and F. mediterranea . In this work, we reported for the first time a curated collection of grapevine fungal endophytes identifying the associated mycoviruses some of which could be employed in future biotechnological exploitation as biological control agents for sustainable plant protection.