Abbreviations used: Bots spp. (Botryosphaeria species), Phom spp. (Phomopsis species), Phaeo spp. (Phaeoacremonium species), Pch (Phaeomoniella chlamydospora), Ela (Eutypa lata), Fme (Fomitiporia mediterranea), Shi (Stereum hirsutum), Cylin spp. (Cylindrocarpon species) and Cado spp. (Cadophora species) Both esca-symptomatic and asymptomatic plants exhibited a similar abundance of wood disease associated fungi (Fig. 4, esca-symptomatic: 35.8 %, asymptomatic: 31.9 %). The most frequent species, Phaeoacremonium chlamydospora, was isolated exclusively from adult

Thiazovivin molecular weight plants, (asymptomatic: 10.9 %, and esca-symptomatic: 12.1 %). The second highest abundance in esca-symptomatic plants (7.7 %) was for Diplodia seriata, the anamorph of

Botryosphaeria obtusa, but the number of isolates of that species retrieved from asymptomatic plants was comparable (6.1 %). When considering the ARRY-438162 other Botryosphaeria anamorphs, the relative abundance of Fusicoccum aesculi was low (<0.6 %) in both plant types. Cumulative relative abundance of Botryosphaeria spp. was slightly higher in esca-symptomatic plants than in asymptomatic ones (respectively 8.1 % and 6.6 %). The next most frequent species in the fungal community associated with adult plants was Eutypa lata (asymptomatic: 5.8 % and esca-symptomatic: 4.3 %). The genus Phomopsis, was represented in adult plants only by P. viticola. Although having a relatively high incidence, this species represented

BCKDHB less than 5 % of the fungal community that was associated with asymptomatic (3.2 %) or esca-symptomatic plants (4.3 %). For Phaeoacremonium spp., the highest abundance was noted for P. viticola in esca-symptomatic plants (2.6 %), but for P. mortoniae in asymptomatic plants (1.9 %). Relative abundance of other species of the same genus was lower than 1 % in adult plants. Overall abundance differences of trunk disease associated fungal species (Fig. 4) were all ≤2 % when comparing esca-symptomatic and asymptomatic plants except for Phaeoacremonium viticola (2.4 %). As a result, none of these presumed pathogens was significantly more invasive in esca-symptomatic plants. Fig. 4 Abundance of wood disease associated fungi in each plant type. Abundance is defined as the number of fungal isolates of a given OTU as a percentage of the total number of fungal isolates obtained from each plant category. Plant types: 1. asymptomatic, 2. esca-symptomatic, 3. nursery Pioneer esca-associated fungi were not transmitted from adult to nursery plants through grafting Our results (Fig. 3) showed that except for Phomopsis and Botryosphaeria anamorphs that were hosted respectively by 43.8 and 28.8 % of the nursery plants, esca-associated fungal species were either absent or of very low incidence in plants ready for planting. Nursery plants neither hosted typical esca pioneer species (i.e.