Myrothecium verrucaria strain X-16, a novel parasitic fungus to Meloidogyne hapla Academic Article uri icon

abstract

  • 2015 Elsevier Inc. Options for control of northern root-knot nematode (NRKN, Meloidogyne hapla) on vegetables are very limited currently. In this study, we characterized the parasitism of Myrothecium verrucaria strain X-16, a new nematophagous fungus, on NRKN at the stages of eggs, J2, and adult females and evaluated its biocontrol efficacy in the greenhouse. Strain X-16 produced conidia that geminated and invaded in 80h after in contact with eggs, causing the shrinkage and depression of egg shell and blastocolysis of the embryo. The strain also attacked 2nd-stage juveniles by producing developing surface networks of hyphae on the nematode body wall. Strain X-16 attacked adult females by producing dense networks of hyphae on the nematode body wall in 120h. Strain X-16 had lethal effects (22-71% mortality) against NRKN J2 at the concentration as low as 3.1107conidia/ml and with the incubation treatment time as short as 24h. The lethal effects linearly increased with the increase of conidial concentration, with the estimated LC50 values as low as 1.0108 conidia/ml. Soil treatments with strain X-16 at 1%, 2% or 4% (wt/wt) induced significant reductions in J2 nematode counts in 100g of dry soil, Pf/Pi ratios and root-know index in cucumber in the greenhouse evaluations. These studies are the first to demonstrate that M. verrucaria is able to parasitize NRKN and strain X-16 can be a potential biocontrol agent for management of NRKN.

published proceedings

  • BIOLOGICAL CONTROL

author list (cited authors)

  • Dong, H., Zhou, X., Wang, J., Xu, Y., & Lu, P.

citation count

  • 12

complete list of authors

  • Dong, Hailong||Zhou, Xin-Gen||Wang, Jianming||Xu, Yumei||Lu, Ping

publication date

  • April 2015