摘要：AbstractIn California vineyards, spore dispersal of fungi that cause grapevine trunk diseases Botryosphaeria dieback and Eutypa dieback occurs with winter rains. Spores infect through pruning wounds made to the woody structure of the vine in winter. Better timing of preventative practices that minimize infection may benefit from routine spore-trapping, which could pinpoint site-specific time frames of spore dispersal. To speed pathogen detection from environmental spore samples, we identified species-specific PCR primers and protocols. Then we compared the traditional culture-based method versus our new DNA-based method.•PCR primers for Botryosphaeria-dieback pathogenNeofusicoccum parvumand Eutypa-dieback pathogenEutypa latawere confirmed species-specific, through extensive testing of related species (in families Botryosphaeriaceae and Diatrypaceae, respectively), other trunk-disease pathogens, and saprophytic fungi that sporulate in vineyards.•Consistent detection ofN. parvumwas achieved from spore suspensions used fresh or stored at -20°C, whereas consistent detection ofE. latawas achieved only with a new spore-lysis method, using zirconia/silica beads in a FastPrep homogenizer (MP Biomedicals; Solon, Ohio, USA), and only from spore suspensions used fresh. FreezingE. lataspores at -20°C made detection inconsistent.•From environmental samples, spores ofE. latawere detected only via PCR, whereas spores ofN. parvumwere detected both via PCR and in culture.Graphical AbstractDisplay Omitted
