Grapevine sanitation: A mini-review

Abstract

As other vegetatively-propagated species, grapevine (Vitis vinifera L.) can be subjected to contamination, throughout the multiplication cycles, with a number of pathogenic agents, including viroids and viruses. As to viruses, over a hundred can affect grapevine, some leading to severe plant damages or even vine death. It is therefore of considerable importance to ensure a healthy sanitary status of vineyards and particularly of repository accessions.

A literature review showed that virus elimination in Vitis species has been achieved through various methods, viz. chemotherapy, meristem culture, micrografting, thermotherapy, cryotherapy or electrotherapy. Virus elimination has also been reported following somatic embryos regeneration, albeit genetic/epigenegetic modifications are then more likely to occur. Still according to the literature, the elimination of all Vitis viruses regulated in the EU, i.e. fanleaf-associated viruses (GFLV, ArMV), leafroll associated viruses (GLRaV-1, GLRaV-3) and rupestris stem-pitting virus (Rupestris stem pitting- associated virus, GRuSPV) plus Grapevine fleck virus (GFkV) was achieved using one or more of the above methods. As observed in other non-Vitis species, combining sanitation methods – one typically being thermotherapy- is at times used for increased efficacy. Among these sanitation methods, cryotherapy is being increasingly mentioned in the literature, with successful results as, to date, GLFV, Grapevine virus A, leafroll-associated viruses (GLRaV-1, -2 and -3) have reportedly been eliminated.

As an illustration, we will present early cryotherapy results obtained within the sanitation programme linked to the transfer of the Vassal grapevine repository; they show thus far that our current protocol, provided that genetic stability of the sanitized regenerants is clearly established, could indeed largely advance this sanitizing effort.