Preliminary attempts to biolistic inoculation of grapevine fanleaf virus

Biolistics has been studied to inoculate grapevine fanleaf virus (GFLV), a Nepovirus, to its natural woody host, Vitis sp., and its herbaceous host, Chenopodium quinoa. At first, bombardment conditions for in vitro and greenhouse grown plants were set using the uidA reporter gene. The infectious feature of the cartridges was then evaluated by studying infection of C. quinoa plants. Systemic infection was obtained with either GFLV particles or RNA extracts in experimental conditions which gave also the highest transient uidA gene expression. Concerning grapevine, our results indicate that extrapolation to this plant is difficult. In only 1 out of 8 independent bombardment experiments done with GFLV and 41B, we were able to detect the virus in freshly bombarded leaves. Similarly, later after bombardment, Pol mRNAs were detected once, at days 7 and 14 only. Incubating the plants in darkness, as suggested in the literature, or using Rupestris Saint Georges, an indicator for GFLV presence, did not yield any improvement. Finely, our observations suggest that detection of GFLV in bombarded grapevine tissues by immunological or molecular techniques remains a limiting factor, probably due to an excess of inhibitory compounds released during the biolistic process.