isolated from grapevine (Vitis vinifera), among which grapevine virus A (GVA), grapevine virus B (GVB) and grapevine virus E (GVE) have been reported from Iranian vineyards (1, 2, 3). In this study, the occurrence of grapevine virus D (GVD) has been reported from Iran. During a survey in 2017, a total number of 33 symptomatic samples were collected from grapevines showing leaf mottling, stem...

grapevine leafroll is one of the most important virus diseases of grapevine in all grape growing countries. This disease causes poor pigmentation, delayed maturity and up to 40% yield reduction of grapes. These symptoms are produced by a closterovirus and a few ampeloviruses which are called grapevine leaf-roll associated viruses (GLRavs). Nine filamentous viruses referred to as GLRaVs 1 to 9 (all belonging to the family Closteroviridae) have been found associated with the disease. Furthermore, grapevine virus A (GYA), a vitivirus, is also associated with leafroll syndrome as well as with rugose wood complex. Although GLRaV-1 and GYA have already been reported from Iran, little information is available on the incidence and prevalence of these viruses as well as the presence of other grapevine leafroll-associated viruses in this country. In this work the presence and prevalence of grapevine leafroll-associated viruses (GLRav-1, -2, -3, -4, -5 and -9) and GYA in vineyards of four Iranian provinces, namely, Fars, Eastern Azarbaijan, Western Azarbaijan and Kohgiluieh-Boyerahmad were investigated. in addition, the rate of incidence of these viruses in vineyards of the four provinces was determined. For this purpose total RNA was extracted from scraped bark tissues of grapevines and used in one-tube RT-PCR with specific primers to analyze the samples the expected products of GVA and GLRaVs -1. -2. -4 and -5 were obtained from diseased samples collected from all provinces. However in regard to the GLRaV-9 which was found only in Fars and Kohgiluieh-Boyerahmad the size of PCR fragments was smaller than expected. No PCR product was found in healthy control plants. The results from analysis of 609 samples revealed the wide distribution of GVA and some of the GLRaVs in vineyards of the four provinces. GVA was the most prevalent one (18.22%) followed by GLRaV-1 (13.46%). Representing 38.7 and 24.5% of the total infected samples, respectively certain samples contained GLRaV-1 +GV A, GLRaV-2+GV A or GLRaV-4, -5, -9 at the same time. Among the Iranian grapevine varieties the lowest infection rate was recorded in Ghezelozom variety in W-Azarbaijan province while Rishbaba variety in fars province had the highest infection rate.

The grape berries due to containing organic acids, sugars, aromatic compounds, phenolic compounds (including anthocyanins, flavanols, flavonols, stilbenes (resveratrol)), tannins, and oil in the pulp, skin, and seed have numerous health benefits for human health. In this study, we investigated genetic and phytochemical characteristics of four famous grapevine cultivars (Shiraz, Sirch, Panje Arous, and Yaghouti) at the maturity stage in 10-20º Brix on a cultivar basis. This research was performed at university of Hormozgan in 2017. The results indicated that Sirch cultivar had the highest total anthocyanin content (2733 mg kg-1 FW), total phenolic content (1666 mg kg-1 FW) and total carotenoid in the skin. High correlation (R 2 = 0. 951) was observed between cultivars skin’ s total anthocyanin and total carotenoid contents. The highest quercetin content (1593 mg kg-1 FW) among the studied cultivars was obtained in Panje Arous cultivar (a pink grape) and Sirch cultivar had the highest delphinidin specific anthocyanin content (65. 03 mg kg-1 FW). Among the studied cultivars, Shiraz had the highest total soluble sugar (%19. 90) and amount of vinegar (950 ml Kg -1 grapes). Analysis of GC-MS results of vinegar, indicated that the highest rate of ethanol (%98. 442) was found in Panje Arous cultivar. DNA sequencing and alignment analysis of F3H, UFGT, DFR, and MybA1 gene sequences showed that there was high homology (>%99) among the studied cultivars, therefore it can be concluded that they are derived from a common ancestor.

During growing seasons 2004-2006 samples of grapevine with esca symptoms were collected from different vineyards in Fars province including Abadeh (Djavadieh & Jannatabad), Eghlid, Bavanat (Soorian & Bavanat), Kavar (Akbarabad & Dashtak) & Shiraz.In this study 51 isolates were recovered & identified as Phaeomoniella chlamydospora, Phaeoacremonium aleophilum, Fusarium sp., Phoma sp., Phaeoacremonium sp. & Nattrassia sp. from wich Phaeoacremonium with 27 & Fusarium with 2 isolates had highest & lowest numbers of isolates. Pathogenesity test of P. aleophilum & Pm. chlamydospora was done under field & greenhouse conditions. Cutting inoculated in greenhouse showed leaf symptoms including midvein chlorosis which turned red after 9 months & eveatually partly become necrotic and defoliated. Under field conditions, P. aleophilum & Pm. chlamydospora caused wood discoloration beyond the inoculated points on the shoots & the pathogen was reisolated.

In order to determine chilling requirement for ‘Askari’ grape, dormant cuttings were collected at the beginnings of autumn. Cuttings were kept in dark at temperature of 2 ±1° C for the periods of 0, 50, 100, 200, 300, 400, 500, 600, 700, 800, 900, and 1000 hrs. The design of the experiment was a randomized complete block with 4 replications. At termination of each period, cuttings were transferred to continuous light at 20°C for bud break. Results indicated that amount of chilling had a significant effect on percentage of bud break, days to first and last bud break, at 1% probability level. Control cuttings had the longest time required for bud break and they were slowest in growing and had the lowest percentage of bud break. Cuttings that received ³200 hrs, had the most bud break and the lowest days to first and last bud break and time required to the full bud break. After 30 days, cuttings with 300 to 1000 hrs chilling did not performed differently. In conclusion, with increased chilling period, number of days to the full bud break was reduced and uniformity in bud break increased. Also when the chilling period was between 0 to 100 hrs, the percentage of total bud break was the least amount. Though all treatments increased the bud break when compared with control, minimum period of 200 hrs of chilling is required to obtain acceptable bud break in ‘Askari’ Grape.

Grapes are among the world most planted horticultural crops. Since the last century, attempts have been made to improve the quality of grapes in the world. Meanwhile, the necessity of having knowledge about the history of progenies families led to the link between genealogy and breeding. Considering some previous mislabeling, in order to find out the accuracy of the controlled crosses as well as determining the possible parents and genealogy of the hybrid progenies, 23 grapevine genotypes were studied by using 14 SSRs loci. These progenies included 12 promising lines selected from 22 crosses as well as their parents that included four seedless and seven seeded cultivars from Iranian Grape Breeding Program, The highest similarity between a female parent and its progenies, which was obtained from dice similarity coefficient and cluster analysis, was about 0.65, belonging to 'Alibaba' and its three progenies (S54, S55, S40). Results rejected any cross-selfing in female parents and also discriminated progenies from parents. Due to possible common genetic backgrounds in the parents, assigning progenies to their parents by cluster analysis or allele counting was impossible. Therefore, parentage analyses were done within likelihood based assignment approach using CERVUS 3.0 software. By this approach, true parents could be identified from candidate parents based on calculated positive and negative LOD scores. Also, by using this approach, genotyping errors, which were previously derived from low number of SSR loci or similarity in the parents' backgrounds, decreased in the final results. In addition, full sib and half sib relationships between S55 and S54 with S40 were obvious. Furthermore, wherever prevention of inbreeding depression is required, the results could be used to select convenient parents for backcrossing.

During growing seasons 2005-2007 samples of grapevine with esca symptoms were collected from different vineyards in Bojnourd (North Khorassan province). Isolation was made from affected wood tissues from branches and trunks on PDA, MEA and OA media. In this study, 64 fungi isolates were recovered and identified as Phaeoacremonium parasiticum, Phaeomoniella chlamydospora, Fomitiporia mediterranea, Fusarium sp. and Phoma sp. Pathogenesity tests were carried out for Pm. Parasiticum, P. chlamydospora and F. mediterranea under field and greenhouse conditions. Within 6 months after inoculation of cuttings, symptoms developed as sever defoliating and wilting under greenhouse conditions.F. mediterranea caused white wood decay while Pm. parasiticumand P. chlamydospora produced wood discoloration in inoculated grapevines. In the field the pathogens were re-isolated and identified from inoculated grapevines after symptoms observed.

IntroductionMore than 80 viral diseases of grapevines have been reported worldwide. The infectious degeneration disease complex causes growth reduction, stunting, shortening of internodes, bushy growth and decline in susceptible vines. grapevine fanleaf viruses (GFLV), arabis mosaic virus (ArMV), grapevine deformation virus (GDefV), tomato ring spot virus (ToRSV) and tobacco ring spot virus (TRSV), which belong to the genus Nepovirus, are known to cause infectious degeneration. The genus Nepovirus has been divided into three subgroups A, B and C based on genome length, genomic organization, serological relationships, proteinase cleavage sites and the phylogenetic relationship of their coat protein (CP) gene. GDefV with the new name Nepovirus deformationis belongs to subgroup A of the genus Nepovirus and is closely related to ArMV and GFLV. Prevalence of GFLV in the vineyards of Iran raises the possibility that a mixed infection of GFLV and GDefV is also present in these areas. In Khorasan-Razavi Province, Iran's third-largest grape production center, research has addressed grape-affecting viruses with potential economic consequences, including reduced yield and product quality. Studying the distribution and genetic diversity of GDefV and other grape viruses is crucial for developing effective management and prevention strategies in the region's vineyards. In this study, GDefV was identified in the vineyards of Khorasan-Razavi province in Northeastern Iran and its complete genome was sequenced. In addition, the phylogenetic relationship of these isolates to other GDefV isolates deposited in GenBank was analyzed. Materials and MethodsSamples from three grapevines were collected from a vineyard in Kashmer, Khorasan-Razavi Province; total RNA was extracted from the petiole of young leaves using the CTAB-PVPP method., GDefV and mixed infections of GDefV/GFLV were detected by PCR using specific primers. The PCR products were electrophoresed in a 1% agarose gel and sequenced. The miRNAs were extracted from grapevine petiole tissue using the modified CTAB method, and small RNA libraries were prepared using the TruSeq Small RNA Sample Prep Kit and sequenced on the Illumina Novaseq 6000 platform. After trimming the reads, contigs were generated using k-mer 15 in Velvet assembler 0.7.31. Contigs were verified using BLASTn and BLASTx in NCBI, and reconstruction of the GDefV genome from the NGS reads was performed using CLC Genomics Workbench (CLC Bio) software. Phylogenetic trees were generated in MEGA7 using the maximum likelihood (ML) method with 1000 replicates in the bootstrap test. The occurrence of possible recombinations in the GDefV genome was analyzed using the RDP v.6 package. Results and DiscussionThe samples showed leaf deformation, shortening of internodes, bushy growth, stunting and decline, but these symptoms are probably related to GFLV, and GDefV only causes leaf deformation in the infected vine. The PCR amplification and sequencing of a segment of the coat protein gene revealed a co-infection of GDefV and GFLV in the samples. GFLV is widely distributed in Iranian vineyards, GDefV has also been previously reported in the vineyards of northwestern Iran, but this is the first report of GDefV in the vineyards of Khorasan-Razavi Province.After refining the reads, approximately 15 million reads (92-99.7% of the original reads) remained for further analysis. The read sequences of each library were deposited in the Sequence Read Archive (SRA) under the accession number SAMN33747579-81. Three Iranian GDefV isolates obtained from three miRNA libraries were deposited in GenBank (accession numbers **-**).RNA1 and RNA2 of the three Iranian GDefV isolates had a length of 7386 and 3753 nucleotides, respectively. The RNA1 in GDefV had an open reading frame (ORF) of 6852 nucleotides in length, which started with the start codon AUG at position 288 and ended with the stop codons UAA or UAG at position 7142. The 5' end of the genome had 287 nucleotides long and contained two repeating sequences of 15 nucleotides that formed stem-loop structures. The length of the non-coding region at the 3' end had 244 nucleotides. Translation of RNA1 of the GDefV genome produces a polyprotein (p1) of 2285 amino acids (approximately 252 kda). The polyprotein p1 comprises the cofactor proteins proteinase, helicase, VPg, proteinase and polymerase with approximate weights of 45, 88, 3, 25 and 91 kDa, respectively. RNA2 also has one ORF, located between nucleotides 237 and 3560. This open reading frame also produces a 122 kDa polyprotein (P2) with 1108 amino acids. The second fragment of the GDeFV genome had 236 nucleotides as a 5'-noncoding region with three repeating sequences of 15 nucleotides that produced stem-loop structures with a 3-nucleotide loop and a 6bp stem. The 3'-noncoding region was also 193 nucleotides long. Polyprotein P2 comprised protein 2A, movement protein (MP) and coat protein (CP). The GDefV polyproteins had cysteine/alanine (C/A) and arginine/glycine (R/G) cleavage sites similar to those of the GFLV polyprotein. Comparison of the RNA1 sequences from three Iranian GDefV isolates with other GDefV isolates available in GenBank showed that the Iranian isolates had 88.1-92.2 % nucleotide identity with each other and 90.3-93.9 % with GenBank isolates at the nucleotide level. At the amino acid level, the Iranian isolates were 86.6-91.6 % identity with each other and 88.9-92.7 % with GenBank isolates. For RNA2, the Iranian isolates showed 89.4-92 % similar to each other and 89.6-94.2 % similar to GenBank isolates at the nucleotide level. The amino acid similarity between the Iranian GDefV isolates was 85-88.6 %. In the phylogenetic tree based on the nucleotide and amino acid sequences of RNA1 and RNA2 of the GDefV genome, the Iranian isolates of this study were clustered in a distinct clade than other GDefV isolates from Turkey (HE613269 and NC017939).GDefV was reported in 2003 and no further information is available on its distribution in vineyards around the world. GDefV has already been reported from Turkey and Iran, but the complete genome sequence of the Iranian GDefV isolate is being reported for the first time. Further studies on the population diversity of GDefV isolates in different regions of Iran are required to gain more insight into the mechanisms affecting the dynamics of GDefV populations.

grapevine virus A (GVA) belongs to Vitivirus genus and is one of the most important causes of wood rugose in grapes. During the years 2019 to 2021, a total of 79 leaf samples showing symptoms of leaf yellowing and reddening from vineyards of Khorasan Razavi Province (including Bardaskan, Kashmar, Khalilabad, and Mohammadiyeh) were collected. The initial infection of the samples to GVA was directly checked using an ELISA test, and the final confirmation of results was performed by RT-PCR with specific primers. Total RNA extraction was performed from scraped bark of young stems using CTAB method. GVA was detected in 14 samples through the ELISA test, and a fragment of 238 base pairs from the p10 protein was amplified in these 14 samples using RT-PCR. The amplified products from four samples were ligated into the pTG19-T vector, and the recombinant plasmids were sequenced bidirectionally. The obtained sequences were compared with the other GVA sequences in GenBank using BlastN tool and the nucleotide similarity was 85.7-95%. The phylogenetic tree based on p10 protein showed there are four main groups, and Khorasan Razavi isolates classified within the fourth group. Comparison of p10-protein sequence of Iranian isolates with other isolates showed there is a conserved region in N-terminal region, which includes an arginine-rich motif followed by a zinc-finger motif. There have been many studies on other viruses of grape in this province, but this is the first study on ithe phylogenyof GVA isolates in the vineyards of Khorasan Razavi province.

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