ABSTRACT
Grapevine fanleaf virus (GFLV) affects only grapevine and occurs in most regions of the world where grapevines are cultivated. Infection by specifi c virus strains causes an abnormal spreading of the leaf veins so that the leaf assumes the appearance of a fan. Other strains cause different symptoms but in all cases virus infection is associated with severe losses (Taylor and Brown 1997). Forty years ago it was confi rmed for the fi rst time that GFLV is transmitted by a root parasitic nematode. Xiphinema index was then shown to be the vector (Hewitt et al. 1958). This fi nding prompted an intensive search for other virus-vector nematodes, with the result that only a few species of the nematode orders Dorylaimida (family Longidoridae) and Triplonchida (family Trichodoridae) are able to transmit soil-borne viruses (Brown et al. 1995, Taylor and Brown 1997).
