Esca and petri diseases are two of the most important grapevine diseases worldwide. Several
hyphomycetes including
Phaeoacremonium
spp. and
Phaeomoniella chlamydospora
, as well
as some basidiomycetes fungi such as
Fomitiporia mediterranea
are known as the main
fungal agents associated with these diseases. Vine trees with die-back and dwarfing signs
and typical symptoms on the leaves show light green or choloroisis, irregular spots between
the veins or along the leaf margins that usually spread outward to distal parts of the shoots,
-
deterioration become visible together with or even preceding white rot including small, dark
brown or black spots in cross section appear as deep brown or black streaks or columns in
longitudinal section. On old trees, the most common symptoms inside trunk and main
branches is white rot, which gradually changes the hard wood to a soft, friable, spongy mass.
. Esac and petri cause slow decline and able to finally destruct young and old vines. Among
these fungal agents,
Phaeomoniella chlamydospora
can infect young vines, while
Phaeoacremonium
spp. and basidiomycetous fungi are mainly causal agents of the disease in
old vines. During an investigation on fungi associated with grapevine decline in Qazvin
province, during 2014-15, 58 fungal isolates from different locations in Qazvin province such
as Takestan, Tarvizak, Narjeh and khorramdasht were obtained from vines with decline
symptoms and purified using single spore method. The isolates were identified based on
microscopic features such as colony color, mycelium cell size and surface ornamentation,
conidiophore characters including width, ramification and type of the phialids; and features
of conidia such as shape and size by using relevant literatures. Furthermore, for molecular
identification, whole-cell DNA was extracted from mycelia by CTAB method. ITS-rDNA
region and partial of Beta tubulin gene were amplified by polymerase chain reaction using
ITS1/ITS4 and Bt2a/Bt2b primers, resp