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Virologie

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Viruses and virus-diseases of the grapevine: diagnosis and control methods Volume 2, issue 6, Novembre - Décembre 1998

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Grapevine viruses and virus diseases induce significant yield reduction and qualitative modification of fruits and must. The effects of the most widespread viroses are summarized. The grapevine viruses identified so far belong to different species ; the genomic organization of the most important of these viruses is described : grapevine fanleaf nepovirus (GFLV), grapevine leafroll associated closteroviruses (GLRaVs), grapevine vitiviruses A and B (GVA, GVB), rupestris stem pitting associated virus (RSPaV) and grapevine fleck virus (GFkV). The control strategies used nowadays are preventive measures which are based on sanitary selection and chemical control of the known vectors (nematodes, mealybugs). Sanitary selection calls for detection techniques the most used being biological indexing and immunochemical techniques such as Elisa. Molecular tools are being developed for the detection of viral RNAs in grapevines. Research programs are running which aim to develope new control strategies : those are mainly cross-protection and pathogen-derived resistance. Cross-protection is being tested with hypovirulent isolates of the nepoviruses ArMV and GFLV. Protection against nepo-, clostero- and viti-viruses, after the transfer of viral genes into grapevines (coat protein, mutated polymerase, protease, movement protein) are being studied.