Considerations on grapevine selection and certification

Different viruses and virus-like diseases can be detrimental to grapevines and their products. The protocols of the assays used to evaluate the impact of viruses have evolved with the progress of the knowledge in aetiology and diagnosis. A wrong interpretation of the data from experiments that compare the performance of virus-infected and non-infected vines may lead to erroneous conclusions. Even if some experiments show that virus infections induce an increase of sugar content, a better evaluation of the experimental data may show that the conclusion drawn is incorrect. The role viruses may play in clonal variability is also discussed.