| Summary: | Grapevine Bois noir (BN) is caused by ‘<i>Candidatus</i> Phytoplasma solani’ (‘<i>Ca</i>. P. solani’) and is one of the most important phytoplasma diseases in the Euro-Mediterranean viticultural areas. The epidemiology of BN can include grapevine as a plant host and is usually transmitted via sap-sucking insects that inhabit herbaceous host plants. Tracking the spread of ‘<i>Ca.</i> P. solani’ strains is of great help for the identification of plant reservoirs and insect vectors involved in local BN outbreaks. The molecular epidemiology of ‘<i>Ca</i>. P. solani’ is primarily based on sequence analysis of the <i>tuf</i> housekeeping gene (which encodes elongation factor Tu). In this study, molecular typing of <i>tuf</i>, through restriction fragment length polymorphism and sequencing, was carried out on grapevine samples from Iranian vineyards. According to the molecular characterization, three molecular types—<i>tuf</i> b1, <i>tuf</i> b5 and <i>tuf</i> b6—were found, with <i>tuf</i> b1 being the most prominent. These data provide further knowledge of <i>tuf</i> gene diversity and question the ecological role of such “minor” <i>tuf</i> types in Iranian vineyards, which have been detected only in grapevines.
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