Temporal Development of the Culturable, Endophytic Fungal Community in Healthy Grapevine Branches and Occurrence of GTD-Associated Fungi

Endophytic fungi play an important role in the life of grapevine, either as beneficial microorganisms or as pathogens. Many surveys concerning the fungal grapevine community have been conducted. Nevertheless, exactly how the fungal community arises within the plant and develops from young shoots to mature vines is still unknown. Therefore, it was the aim of this study to investigate the early development of endophytic fungal communities in healthy grapevine branches from 2 months to 8 years old. More than 3800 fungi belonging to 86 operational taxonomic units (OTUs) were isolated from wood samples and assigned to eight age groups. The community composition within the age groups changed and significant differences between young (≤ 1 year) and old (> 1 year) branches were found. The former were primarily dominated by ubiquitous, fast-growing fungi like Alternaria spp., Aureobasidium pullulans, Cladosporium spp., or Epicoccum nigrum, while communities of perennial branches additionally harbored many grapevine trunk disease (GTD)-associated fungi such as Diplodia seriata or Eutypa lata. This work gives an insight into the early development of fungal communities in grapevine, the nature and composition of primary settlers and core communities, as well as the emergence of GTD-associated fungi in perennial wood. This information may help grapevine growers to better estimate the risk in relation to the applied training system, producing mainly old branches or young shoots.