Unveiling the mycobiome of healthy and Esca diseased grapevines: fungal community dynamics across different microhabitats, seasons, years, and cultivars.
Geiger A, Leal CM, Karácsony Z, Golen R, Lepres LA
Soil Health
Grapevines in your region—whether in a backyard arbor or a commercial vineyard nearby—are quietly hosting a complex fungal ecosystem that can tip from healthy balance to devastating trunk disease, and now we know the soil around the roots holds the richest reservoir of fungal diversity while the bark is where the dangerous pathogens concentrate.
Scientists swabbed and sampled the bark, inner wood, and surrounding soil of grapevines—some visibly sick, some looking fine—and used DNA sequencing to identify every fungus present. They discovered that the location on the plant matters enormously: disease-causing fungi cluster in bark and wood, while soil hosts the greatest overall variety of fungi. Surprisingly, the year of the study had a bigger effect on which fungi showed up than the season or even the grape variety being grown.
Key Findings
Plant health status significantly affected only GTD (grapevine trunk disease) pathogens, which were more abundant and diverse in symptomatic vines compared to healthy ones.
Year (vintage) was the single strongest driver of fungal community shifts across all microhabitats—outweighing season, cultivar, and disease status.
Soil harbored the highest overall fungal diversity, while bark and wood were the primary zones for plant pathogens and wood-decay fungi associated with trunk disease.
chevron_right Technical Summary
Researchers mapped the fungal communities living in grapevine bark, wood, and soil—comparing healthy vines to those sick with Esca, a destructive trunk disease. They found that where a fungus lives (bark vs. wood vs. soil) and what year it is matter more than the season or grape variety in shaping which fungi are present.
Abstract Preview
Grapevines host diverse microbial communities, including fungal pathogens associated with grapevine trunk diseases (GTDs), which pose a major challenge in viticulture. Despite extensive research, t...
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