Grapevine (Vitis vinifera) is one of the most ancient crops cultivated worldwide for the production of both fresh grapes and wine, which represents an important source of income for many countries. Europe is the leading global wine producer, with about 50% of the world’s vine-growing area, with 3.3 million ha (Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations Statistics Division, FAOSTAT, 2018). Grapevine can be affected by virus and virus-like diseases that may significantly reduce the productive life of the plants as well as the grape production in terms of the quantity and quality of the berries [1]. In fact, the grapevine has been described as the crop that hosts the largest number of plant viruses, with more than 85 viral species known to infect this important crop to date [2,3].

The number of viruses identified in sweet cherry has been constantly increasing over the last few years, following the broad application of high-throughput sequencing (HTS). Some of these were reported to cause leaf symptoms and yield reduction.

Composed of a naked circular non-protein-coding genomic RNA, counting only a few hundred nucleotides, viroids—the smallest infectious agents known so far—are able to replicate and move systemically in herbaceous and woody host plants, which concomitantly may develop specific diseases or remain symptomless