Introduction

 

Fruit trees and grapevine are propagated vegetatively and are often grafted
As a result they suffer from a high number of pathogens such as viruses and viroids, with some of them causing severe yield losses and reducing the productive life of the affected plants
These pathogens cannot be controlled by the application of chemicals therefore the most efficient way to combat them is the production and commercialization of high quality pathogen-tested propagative material
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Objectives of VirFree

 

VirFree brings together participants from both academia and privatecompanies to collaborate through their expertise on the following objectives:

     

to identify new viral and viroid strains or species affecting fruit trees and grapevine

to optimize existing and develop novel detection methods

to improve propagation and sanitation methods for producing high quality (virus-tested) plant material of fruit trees and grapevine

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 Approach

 

Diagnostic tools currently used in certification schemes will becombined with cutting edge technologies such as NGS and Nanobodies
 
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 Expected benefits

 

 Training of a new generation of researchers to fulfill the needs of both industrial and academic sectors

Enrich the knowledge on viruses/viroids associated with different diseases

Improve the sensitivity of detection methods

Development of new detection products

Improvement of the disseminated propagative material

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VirFree (H2020-MSCA-RISE-2016-Virus free fruit nurseries) © All Rights Reserved | This project has received funding from the European Union’s Horizon 2020 research and innovation programme under the Marie Sklodowska-Curie grant agreement No 734736.