lmprovement of a protocol for sanitation and early diagnostic validation of autochthonous grapevine germplasm

Early detection of infections in programs of production of virus-tested vine propagating material is of paramount importance to reduce costs of ma int aining san itized plants. In Apulia (ltaly), the Regional Project "Re. Ge .Vi. P." , aiming to the recovery, conservation and sanitary improvement of autochthonous vine cultivars, gave the cue to assess the minimum period of time required after sanitati on to detect virus infections with molecular techniques. Previous results of this work, relatively to the period 2013 -2015, were given (Morelli et al. , 2015) and regarded the analys is of the sanitary status of ca. 150 grape cultivars from which ca. 100 apexes were obtained by thermotherapy and in vitro culture. The work, continued in 2016- 20 17 , allowed to confirm the previous findings which showed the good efficacy of the sanitation protocols and the reliability of applied diagnostic techniques in the whole process of production of vine propagating material.