Expression Of Disease Symptoms Research Articles

Pyramiding Ty-1/Ty-3 and Ty-2 in tomato hybrids dramatically inhibits symptom expression and accumulation of tomato yellow leaf curl disease inducing viruses

Tomato yellow leaf curl disease is a major constraint for tomato production worldwide and availability of new resistant materials is of great importance for breeding programmes. A phenotypic survey was undertaken to evaluate the level of resistance to the main tomato yellow leaf curl disease-inducing viruses Tomato yellow leaf curl virus and Tomato yellow leaf curl Sardinia virus, in several commercial tomato cultivars, never characterised before. Seven weeks post inoculation, two cultivars resulted in high resistant phenotypes to both begomoviruses, and four were tolerant to at least one of them. In the two highly resistant hybrids (SJ12, RFT112), symptoms were completely absent and viral DNA was from 102 to 105 fold lower than in susceptible plants. Molecular marker analysis revealed that these genotypes harbour the resistant genes Ty-1/Ty-3 and Ty-2. Given their high resistance, they can be considered good candidates for cultivation and breeding in areas where incidence of TYLCD is very elevated.

Immunity to Rice Blast Disease by Suppression of Effector-Triggered Necrosis

Hemibiotrophic pathogens are some of the most destructive plant pathogens, causing huge economic losses and threatening global food security. Infection with these organisms often involves an initial biotrophic infection phase, during which the pathogen spreads in host tissue asymptomatically, followed by a necrotrophic phase, during which host-cell death is induced. How hemibiotrophic pathogens trigger host necrosis and how plants inhibit the transition from the biotrophic stage to the necrotrophic stage in disease symptom expression are mainly unknown. The rice blast fungus Magnaporthe oryzae spreads in rice biotrophically early during infection, but this biotrophic stage is followed by a pronounced switch to cell death and lesion formation. Here, we show that the M.oryzae effector AvrPiz-t interacts with the bZIP-type transcription factor APIP5 in the cytoplasm and suppresses its transcriptional activity and protein accumulation at the necrotrophic stage. Silencing of APIP5 in transgenic rice leads to cell death, and thephenotype is enhanced by the expression of AvrPiz-t. Conversely, Piz-t interacts with and stabilizes APIP5 to prevent necrosis at the necrotrophic stage. At the same time, APIP5 is essential for Piz-t stability. These results demonstrate a novelmechanism for thesuppression of effector-triggered necrosis at the necrotrophic stage by an NLR receptor in plants.

Detection of Fungal Metabolites from Bakanae Diseased Plants and Their Relationship with Bakanae Disease Symptoms Expression

Amount of fungal metabolites present in diseased plants and their consequences in bakanae disease development were determined. Metabolites fusaric acid (FA), fumonisin (FB1), moniliformin (MON) and beauvericin (BEA) were isolated and quantified using HPLC analysis from rice plants infected with Fusarium proliferatum. Higher amount of moniliformin was detected from stem part (550 ng/g fresh wt.) as well as from whole plants (112.8 ng/g fresh wt.) in susceptible of MR 211 at disease score level 5. But moniliformin was not detected in inoculated resistant variety BR3. The level of FA was progressed from disease score 1 to disease score 5 that made plants to stunting/ceased growth. Among the four fungal metabolites, MON and FA had found positive relationship with bakanae disease symptoms development. This paper will be helpful for understanding the relationship between fungal metabolites in bakanae disease development in susceptible rice plants. Theknowledge of this research will be also implied on other fungal diseases for which fungi are capable to produce metabolites in infected plants.

Fungal cell wall polymer based nanoparticles in protection of tomato plants from wilt disease caused by Fusarium oxysporum f.sp. lycopersici

Cell wall polymer (chitosan) was isolated from Fusarium oxysporum f.sp. lycopersici. They were cross linked with sodium tripolyphosphate (TPP) to synthesize nanoparticles (CWP-NP). The nanoparticles were characterized by FTIR, DLS, SEM, XRD and NMR analyses. The isolated CWP-NP exhibit antifungal activity under in vitro condition. The foliar application of the CWP-NP to tomato plants challenged with F. oxysporum f. sp. lycopersici showed delay in wilt disease symptom expression and reduce the wilt disease severity. Treated plants also showed enhanced yield. These results suggested the role of the CWP-NP in protecting tomato plants from F. oxysporum f.sp. lycopersici infection.

Radicinin from Cochliobolus sp. inhibits Xylella fastidiosa, the causal agent of Pierce’s Disease of grapevine

The fastidious phytopathogenic bacterium, Xylella fastidiosa, poses a substantial threat to many economically important crops, causing devastating diseases including Pierce’s Disease of grapevine. Grapevines (Vitis vinifera L.) planted in an area under Pierce’s Disease pressure often display differences in disease severity and symptom expression, with apparently healthy vines growing alongside the dying ones, despite the fact that all the vines are genetic clones of one another. Under the hypothesis that endophytic microbes might be responsible for this non-genetic resistance to X. fastidiosa, endophytic fungi were isolated from vineyard cvs. ‘Chardonnay’ and ‘Cabernet Sauvignon’ grown under high Pierce’s Disease pressure. A Cochliobolus sp. isolated from a Cabernet Sauvignon grapevine inhibited the growth of X. fastidiosa in vitro. Bioassay-guided isolation of an organic extract of Cochliobolus sp. yielded the natural product radicinin as the major active compound. Radicinin also inhibited proteases isolated from the culture supernatant of X. fastidiosa. In order to assess structure–activity relationships, three semi-synthetic derivatives of radicinin were prepared and tested for activity against X. fastidiosa in vitro. Assay results of these derivatives are consistent with enzyme inactivation by conjugate addition to carbon-10 of radicinin, as proposed previously.

The role of phytohormones in relation to bakanae disease development and symptoms expression

Fusarium proliferatum, the causal agent of bakanae disease was found to be up-regulated gibberellic acids (GAs) in bakanae diseased rice plants and thereby contributing to the different types of symptoms observed associated with the disease. The up- and down regulation of GAs, IAA and ABA were studied in susceptible (MR 211) and resistant (BR3) varieties artificially inoculated with F. proliferatum at different times after inoculation. The increase in GAs including fungiproduced GA3 and IAA were higher in inoculated MR 211 rice plants (GAs = 26%, IAA = 40.39%) as compared to resistant BR3 (GAs = 19%, IAA = 4.27%), 7 days after inoculation (disease score 1, S-1) in whole plant sample analysis. The increase were higher in both roots and leaves but not in the stem, thus the main symptom observed as stunting of the susceptible plants at disease score 1. However, 14 days after inoculation (disease score 3, S-3), both phytohormones were observed to increase in whole plant sample analysis as well as in all plant parts sampled. This increasing effect was found associated with elongation of internodes and chlorosis of leaves in susceptible plants of MR 211. As the symptoms progressed to disease score 5 (S-5, after 21 days of inoculation) susceptible plants of MR 211 were started to collapse and lodged due to over elongation, and finally dead followed by a decrease in GAs and IAA but an increase in ABA. In resistant variety BR3, marginal up regulation of GAs and IAA were observed only at 21 days after inoculation in stems with no typical symptom of bakanae disease.

Large‐scale fuzzy rule‐based prediction for suitable chestnut ink disease sites: a case study in north‐east Italy

SummaryIn the past few decades, economic interest in the cultivation of chestnuts for both timber and nut production has resurfaced in the Mediterranean area. However, chestnut cultivation has suffered in recent years from the spread of exotic pests, such as the gall wasp Dryocosmus kuriphilus, and from the resurgence of previously present diseases, most likely due to anomalous climate dynamics. This is the case with chestnut ink disease, caused by the soilborne pathogens Phytophthora cinnamomi and P. cambivora. Scientific and technical support in monitoring and management, that utilizes new forecasting approaches incorporating related environmental variables, is therefore essential. The main aim of this study was to develop a mathematical model assessing the potential for the establishment of chestnut ink disease at a large scale. Towards this goal, fuzzy rule‐based theory was applied to the environmental variables associated with host presence, pathogens' ecological niches and ink disease symptoms expression. The effectiveness of the rule‐based modelling outcomes, provided with uncertainty maps to facilitate their correct interpretation, was confirmed by detailed field data collected from a large chestnut‐growing area where ink disease has been increasing in recent years. The final model gave consistent predictions for disease presence. For this reason, it represents a flexible and valuable decision‐support tool to forecast which sites are at risk from CID.

A work of art: Expression of disease symptoms

A work of art is most often a result of an artist's inspiration, a reflection of feelings, but often a deep insight into his own personality or events and activities around. The analysis of a work of art may reveal not only a state of mind at the moment of creation, but also a deeper background, which may be a consequence of a disease. A classic example is Van Gogh's self-portrait without the ear occurring after self-injury as a result of his mental illness. In a series of paintings and prints entitled 'The Scream' Edvard Munch clearly evokes a state of panic that used to grip him occasionally, which he even verbally depicted. A great painting poet of the first half of the twentieth century, Marc Chagall, in several of his paintings, composed during the artist's hard period, varies the theme of a double-face with one usually dark side, and the other - light, indicating a bipolar disorder. However, a picture may not only be a reflection of the spirit of the artist, but it can also indicate an organic disease. It is known that Claude Monet complained of losing sight; in fact he suffered from cataracts. He perpetuated the development of this disease by a large number of paintings and drawings of water lilies in his Japanese garden, made over the period of more than 20 years. The last of these pictures, when he could see almost nothing, seem a bit abstract, full of bright colors, so he probably wanted to offset the greyness which he was surrounded by. William Utermohlen, an American painter, who suffered from Alzheimer's disease, showed the development of the diseases in a series of self-portraits. Frida Kahlo, a brave Mexican painter, had a serious car accident when she was eighteen, which left her paralyzed for life. Severe injuries she sustained in the accident are anatomically correctly immortalized in several of her paintings. Spiritual and physical conditions of an artist as a consequence of a disease can be found in other art forms too. In his novel The Idiot, Fyodor Mikhailovich Dostoyevsky made a very striking description of an epileptic aura (a disease from which the author himself suffered). Franz Kafka in his novel The Trial gave a perfect description of the feeling of paranoia, and his story The Metamorphosis presented a hallucinatory state of the same basic disease.

Banana bunchy top disease (BBTD) symptom expression in banana and strategies for transgenic resistance: A review

Bananas are one among the world’s leading food crops after rice, wheat and maize. Banana cultivation is affected by various diseases. Among them, in globally banana bunchy top disease (BBTD) caused by the banana bunchy top virus (BBTV) and Fusarium wilt caused by the Fusarium oxysporum f.sp. cubense are the most serious diseases. BBTV is an isometric virus with a circular single stranded DNA (ssDNA) genome consisting of at least six components, BBTV DNA-1 to 6. The virus is transmitted by the banana aphid (Pentalonia nigronervosa). In this review paper, we are discussing the global status of BBTD, symptom expression in both vegetative and reproductive stage, resistant strategy and recent BBTV resistant banana clones development.

Can Changes in Soil Properties in Organic Banana Production Suppress Fusarium Wilt?

Organic agriculture promotes disease suppression through healthy soils by increasing biological activity and diversity through the application of organic fertilizers and increasing organic inputs. Fusarium wilt of bananas (Fusarium oxysporum f. sp. Fcubense) (Foc), also known as Panama disease, has been a devastating disease throughout the world. So far, no fungicides or cultural measures have been found that control Foc sufficiently. The aim of this research was to assess whether organic-based farming systems were more resilient than inorganic farming systems to soil borne diseases, in particular Fusarium wilts. A survey was conducted comparing five organic and five conventional banana plantations at paired sites in north Queensland, Australia. Soil samples were collected and analysed for chemical, physical and biological soil health indicators. Disease development of F. oxysporum f. sp. lycopersici in tomatoes and Foc in bananas were studied in pot trials to pursue clues for identifying Fusarium suppressive soil traits. Organic soils from the survey showed higher microbial activity and lower disease symptom expression (both with tomatoes and bananas) than conventional soils. In the survey, nematode diversity and soil sulphate content were recurring indicators in all experiments showing close correlations to pathogen growth, disease expression and plant health. Organic soils were lower in plant-parasitic nematodes and sulphate sulphur levels and higher in nematode diversity, labile soil C and microbial indicators. Soil conduciveness or suppression of Foc appeared to be largely governed by competition for carbon. Measurement of soil microbial enzyme activity, nematode community structure and diversity and possibly sulphate sulphur seem to provide a relatively reliable indicator for general disease suppression. Differences between organic and conventional agriculture cannot be related to single management practices, but may be linked to synergies among system components.

The role of cow dung and kitchen manure composts and their non-aerated compost teas in reducing the incidence of foliar diseases of Lycopersicon esculentum (Mill)

Compost teas are fermented watery extracts of composted materials used for their beneficial effect on plants. A study was conducted in the field to compare the efficacy of cow dung and kitchen manure composts and their derived non-aerated compost teas on disease symptoms expression and severity of Lycopersicon esculentum. The experimental layout was a complete randomised block design comprising six treatments, each of which was repeated three times: the negative control plot (Tm-); the positive control or fungicide plot (Tm+); the cow dung compost plot (Cpi); the kitchen manure compost plot (Cpii); the compost tea derived cow dung plot (Tci); and the compost tea derived kitchen manure plot (Tcii). Compost tea derived cow dung was revealed to be richer in elemental nutrients (N, P, K) than compost tea from kitchen manure, and significantly (p < 0.0001) enhanced fruit yield per plant. Similarly, the two composts and their derived compost teas significantly (p < 0.0001) reduced the incidence and severity of disease symptoms compared to the controls, with the highest efficacy accounting for cow dung compost and compost tea. Although the non-aerated compost teas were not amended with micro-organisms, these results suggest that the two compost teas in use were rich enough in microbial pathogen antagonists, and therefore, are perceived as potential alternatives to synthetic chemical fungicides. Future work will attempt to identify these microbial antagonists with highly suppressive activity in the non-aerated compost teas. DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.3329/ijarit.v4i1.21100 Int. J. Agril. Res. Innov. & Tech. 4 (1): 88-97, June, 2014

Study of Thermotherapy against Citrus Huanglongbing in Fujian Province, China

Author(s): Fan, Guocheng; Liu, Bo; Lie, Xiongjie; Cai, Zijian; Hu, Hanqing; Wang, Xianda; Ruan, Chuanqing; Lu, Lianming; Sequeira, Ronald; Xia, Yulu | Abstract: Huanglongbing (HLB) is a major threat to world citrus production. In this study,nwe investigated using a heat treatment technique for managing HLB-affected citrus trees in the field. A total of 72 5-to-8-year old mandarin citrus, Citrus reticulata Blanco, trees were used for the study. Nine trees were regarded as a replicate or a block with four replicates per treatment. A randomized complete block design was used for field experimental design. The treated trees were covered by using plastic sheeting for 6-h during day time, repeated three times weekly. Positive results were observed, judging by disease symptom expression and titer changes before and after treatment. New flushes and healthy young leaves were abundant in the treated trees by the 4thweek as well as 11th week after last plastic sheeting. Approximately 60% of treated trees had more than 80% reduction of Las titers, with eleven trees (11 out of 36) showing a decline of more than 95%, and eight trees with a slight increase of Las titers in the 4th week after treatment. Whereas Las titers in the untreated plants exhibited a significant increase, with the highest increase being about 96-fold compared to pre-treatment in the 4th week after treatment. Las titers in the treated citrus trees declined more significantly by the 11th week after treatment, compared to those of untreated. About 44% of treated trees had a more than 90% titer reduction. Change of Las titer in the untreated trees varied substantially in the 11thweek after treatment. Twenty trees (20 out of 36) had a wide range of Las titer reductions, Las titers in the remaining 16 trees were increased significantly, with the highest increase being 31-fold, compared to the Las titer level of pre-treatment.

Screening Onion Plant Introduction Accessions for Tolerance to Onion Thrips and Iris Yellow Spot

Iris yellow spot is an economically important disease of onion that reduces bulb size and yield and is difficult to control. The disease is spread by Thrips tabaci (onion thrips) and disease symptoms are exacerbated by hot, dry climatic conditions that also favor rapid thrips multiplication and make control programs less effective. Currently, no onion cultivar is resistant to the disease and/or thrips. Certain onion foliar characteristics have shown nonpreferential feeding activity by thrips and may be the first step in developing Iris yellow spot (IYS)-tolerant onion cultivars. Seventy-five onion PI accessions from the U.S. germplasm collection were evaluated for leaf color, waxiness (bloom), and axil pattern; thrips number per plant; and IYS disease severity under conditions that favored thrips and disease buildup. Plants of PI 289689 were less attractive to thrips and had a lower number of thrips per plant than plants of most other accessions. These plants were rated as having light green to green-colored foliage and a relatively low amount of epicuticular leaf wax. Plants of PIs 239633 and 546192 generally exhibited less severe IYS disease symptoms than those of other accessions. Individual plants, that exhibited less leaf area exhibiting IYS disease symptoms, were selected at bulb maturity from 22 different accessions with PI 546140 producing the largest number of selected bulbs. Physiological plant development, environmental conditions, and tolerance to plant stress may influence the degree of disease symptom expression. Further work that examines the role of plant maturity and host plant tolerance to stress with respect to disease expression is needed.

Assessing the Consequences of Microbial Infection in Field Trials: Seen, Unseen, Beneficial, Parasitic and Pathogenic

Microbial infections of crop plants present an ongoing threat to agricultural production. However, in recent years, we have developed a more nuanced understanding of the ecological role of microbes and how they interact with plants. This includes an appreciation of the influence of crop physiology and environmental conditions on the expression of disease symptoms, the importance of non-pathogenic microbes on host plants and pathogens, and the capacity for plants to act as hosts for human pathogens. Alongside this we now have a variety of tools available for the identification and quantification of microbial infections on crops grown under field conditions. This review summarises some of the consequences of microbial infections in crop plants, and discusses how new and established assessment tools can be used to understand these processes. It challenges our current assumptions in yield loss relationships and offers understanding of the potential for more resilient crops.

Effect of temperature on symptom expression and sequence polymorphism of grapevine yellow speckle viroid 1 in grapevine

Symptom expression of yellow speckle disease was studied in a row of 32 individual Vitis vinifera cv. Chardonnay vines in the warmer summer of 2009/2010 as compared with the cooler summer of 2011/2012 in South Australia. RT-PCR analysis showed that all these vines were positive for hop stunt viroid, grapevine yellow speckle viroid 1 (GYSVd-1) and grapevine rupestris stem pitting-associated virus. Four vines named Vines 1, 8, 11 and 15 were selected for further analyses. Vines 1 and 8 had never shown yellow speckle (YS) symptoms, Vine 11 had always been symptomatic, and Vine 15 showed YS symptoms only in the summer of 2009/2010, but not in 2011/2012. Analysis of partial nucleotide (nt) sequence of GYSVd-1 from these vines showed two major sequence polymorphisms in the pathogenicity domain coinciding with the YS symptoms and the prevailing temperature in each season. One group designated UA group had a uridine (U) at position 309 and an adenine (A) at position 311, while another group designated AU group had the other way around: an “A” at position 309 and a “U” at position 311. The AU group had never been reported before. The AU group was a minor variant in the GYSVd-1 population and not present in symptomatic Vine 11. In contrast, the UA group was dominant and present in all the vine samples. Surprisingly, all the asymptomatic vines, but not symptomatic vines, had the signature of the AU group. Whether the AU group is associated with the YS symptom expression is interesting. Our result provides a new insight into the sequence variability of viroid-inducing symptoms during two significantly different growing seasons.

Estimating the delay between host infection and disease (incubation period) and assessing its significance to the epidemiology of plant diseases.

Knowledge of the incubation period of infectious diseases (time between host infection and expression of disease symptoms) is crucial to our epidemiological understanding and the design of appropriate prevention and control policies. Plant diseases cause substantial damage to agricultural and arboricultural systems, but there is still very little information about how the incubation period varies within host populations. In this paper, we focus on the incubation period of soilborne plant pathogens, which are difficult to detect as they spread and infect the hosts underground and above-ground symptoms occur considerably later. We conducted experiments on Rhizoctonia solani in sugar beet, as an example patho-system, and used modelling approaches to estimate the incubation period distribution and demonstrate the impact of differing estimations on our epidemiological understanding of plant diseases. We present measurements of the incubation period obtained in field conditions, fit alternative probability models to the data, and show that the incubation period distribution changes with host age. By simulating spatially-explicit epidemiological models with different incubation-period distributions, we study the conditions for a significant time lag between epidemics of cryptic infection and the associated epidemics of symptomatic disease. We examine the sensitivity of this lag to differing distributional assumptions about the incubation period (i.e. exponential versus Gamma). We demonstrate that accurate information about the incubation period distribution of a pathosystem can be critical in assessing the true scale of pathogen invasion behind early disease symptoms in the field; likewise, it can be central to model-based prediction of epidemic risk and evaluation of disease management strategies. Our results highlight that reliance on observation of disease symptoms can cause significant delay in detection of soil-borne pathogen epidemics and mislead practitioners and epidemiologists about the timing, extent, and viability of disease control measures for limiting economic loss.

Dietary Considerations in Migraine Management: Does a Consistent Diet Improve Migraine?

The clinical expression of migraine is significantly impacted by dietary and gastrointestinal issues. This includes gut dysfunction during and between attacks, food triggers, increase in migraine with obesity, comorbid GI and systemic inflammation influenced by diet, and specific food allergies such as dairy and gluten. Practitioners often encourage migraineurs to seek consistency in their lifestyle behaviors, and environmental exposures, as a way of avoiding sudden changes that may precipitate attacks. However, rigorous evidence linking consistency of diet with improvement in migraine is very limited and is, at best, indirect, being based mainly on the consistency of avoiding suspected food triggers. A review of current data surrounding the issue of dietary consistency is presented from the perspective of migraine as an illness (vulnerable state), as a disease (symptom expression traits), and with a view toward the role of local and systemic inflammation in its genesis. Firm recommendations await further investigation.

A new betasatellite associated with cotton leaf curl Burewala virus infecting tomato in India: influence on symptoms and viral accumulation

A begomovirus and its associated alpha- and betasatellite were detected in tomato plants affected with leaf curl disease. Based on a nucleotide sequence identity of 99 %, this begomovirus was designated an isolate of cotton leaf curl Burewala virus (CLCuBuV). The alphasatellite exhibited 93 % sequence identity to cotton leaf curl Burewala alphasatellite (CLCuBuA) and is hence referred to here as a variant of CLCuBuA. The detected betasatellite was recombinant in nature and showed 70 % sequence identity to the known betasatellites. Inoculation of healthy tomato with CLCuBuV plus betasatellite, either in the presence or the absence of alphasatellite, led to typical leaf curling, while inoculation with CLCuBuV in the absence of betasatellite resulted in mild symptoms. This confirmed the role of the betasatellite in expression of disease symptoms. We propose to name the newly detected betasatellite tomato leaf curl Hajipur betasatellite (ToLCHJB).

Systemicity of Xanthomonas campestris pv. musacearum and time to disease expression after inflorescence infection in East African highland and Pisang Awak bananas in Uganda

Banana xanthomonas wilt (XW) caused by Xanthomonas campestris pv. musacearum (Xcm) attacks all banana cultivars. Xcm in inflorescence‐infected Pisang Awak plants with wilting male bud bracts is restricted to the upper parts of the true stem; therefore, cutting these plants at the pseudostem base has been recommended to prevent further Xcm spread. In order to fine‐tune existing control strategies, this study examined the movement of Xcm into plants and mats, in relation to disease incubation period. Mature Pisang Awak and East African highland (AAA‐EA) plants were inoculated with Xcm through abscission wounds of female bracts, male bud bracts, male flowers, a combination of male bud bracts and flowers, and by cutting male buds with a contaminated machete. Thirty plants per genotype and treatment were monitored for 24 months for disease symptoms. An additional 68 AAA‐EA and 33 Pisang Awak plants were sampled weekly to assess the rate of Xcm spread within the plants. All floral entry points resulted in disease, with the highest incidence in combined male bract and male flower abscission wound inoculations. The study confirmed the systemicity of Xcm, with the pathogen able to live within the mat for long periods (5–16 months) without causing disease. Reliance on disease symptom expression to manage XW is therefore not sufficient. The long incubation period in lateral shoots may explain the current resurgence of the disease in locations where the disease was thought to have been successfully eradicated.

Colonization ofVitisspp. Wood by sGFP-TransformedPhaeomoniella chlamydospora, a Tracheomycotic Fungus Involved in Esca Disease

To evaluate wood colonization and interactions with Vitis spp. of Phaeomoniella chlamydospora, a fungal agent involved in Esca disease, isolate CBS 229.95 was transformed using a pCT74 construct which contained the genetic markers for synthetic green fluorescent protein (sGFP) and hygromycin B phosphotransferase. Nine stable P. chlamydospora fungal transformants (Pch-sGFP lines) were obtained using polyethylene-glycol-mediated transformation of protoplasts. These were characterized for sgfp and hygromycin B phosphotransferase (hph) genome insertions and for sGFP fluorescence emission, using quantitative polymerase chain reaction and fluorimetric systems, respectively. No correlation was observed between sgfp copy number genome insertion and sGFP fluorescence expression. Cuttings of Vitis vinifera 'Montepulciano', 'Verdicchio', 'Sangiovese', 'Biancame', and 'Cabernet Sauvignon'; and the grapevine rootstocks 'Kober 5BB', 'SO4', '420A', '1103P', and V. rupestris were inoculated by immersion in a conidial suspension of the selected fungal Pch-sGFP71 line and incubated at 4 ± 1 and 25 ± 1°C. Wood colonization was estimated through epifluorescence microscopy and was affected by incubation temperature. After 6 months at 4 ± 1°C, the fungal growth was completely inhibited. At 25 ± 1°C, the highest extent of wood colonization was recorded in Montepulciano and Verdicchio, with the lowest in the rootstocks SO4 and V. rupestris. The expression of the Pch-sGFP71 transformed line was localized in the xylem area, primarily around the vessels. The use of sGFP-transformed P. chlamydospora helped to clarify different aspects associated with the location of this pathogen in grapevine tissue, before disease symptom expression.