A study of suitability of grapevine cultivar Plovdina as a possible indicator plant for flavescence doree disease

Abstract

Grapevine cv. Plovdina is a traditional local variety that is very sensitive to flavescence doree (FD) disease. In this paper, we present the results of top-grafting FD-infected cv. Plovdina plants with scions originating from healthy mother plants of the same cultivar using the "green grafting" method. The first grapevine yellows (GY) symptoms, consisting of yellowing of the Plovdina leaves, have been observed on scions 20 days after grafting. Our results show that GY symptoms were due to phytoplasma and not the viral infection, since grapevine leafroll associated viruses-1, 2 and 3 (GLRaV-1, 2, 3) could not be detected in the scions. Twenty days after-grafting, phytoplasma FD was detected in all grafted scions. Our results indicate that grapevine cv. Plovdina is very suitable as an indicator plant for Flavescence doree disease.