Characterization of Meloidogyne species and the reaction of tomato Solanum lycopersicum L. cultivars to Meloidogyne incognita and Meloidogyne javanica

Abstract

The study was conducted to determine the distribution of the common Meloidogyne species in research stations and vegetable farms in Ibadan, south-western Nigeria. Galled roots were collected from inoculum plots of four research stations and two vegetable farms. Identification of species was based on juvenile and female morphological characters and specific SCAR primers for Meloidogyne species. The pathogenicity of M. incognita and M. javanica was evaluated at different inoculum levels on tomato in a screenhouse study. M. incognita was the dominant species encountered in research plots, although it often occurred in mixed population with M. javanica and other unidentified species. Growth parameters such as plant height, number of leaves, and yield responded negatively to increasing inoculum levels for all the cultivars except Small Fry and Celebrity. Both cultivars were categorized as resistant to M. incognita and tolerant to M. javanca. The most popularly grown tomato cultivars, Ibadan Local, Roma (Roma type) and Beske were susceptible to both species of root-knot nematodes.

Keywords

• celebrity
• host rating
• pathogenicity
• root-knot nematodes
• scar-pcr
• vegetables