Morphological, biochemical and molecular characterisation of Meloidogyne javanica, from North Portugal, in tomato

Abstract

Plant-parasitic nematodes are highly damaging pests in many crops of great economic importance. A substantial part of this damage is caused by root-knot nematodes (RKN), Meloidogyne spp. represents losses of millions of euros, due to their wide geographical distribution and range of host plants. Therefore, an accurate and reliable identification is needed to establish effective, sustainable and environmentally safe control measures. The main goal of this study was to characterise morphological, biochemical and molecularly one Portuguese isolate of Meloidogyne found associated with tomato crop. Morphometric studies were based on second-stage juveniles (body length, stylet length, tail length, hyaline terminus length and DGO) and female perineal patterns. Biochemical assays using esterases (EST isozymes) were performed on females and the PAGE enzymatic patterns compared to previous descriptions. Molecular analysis was based on PCR using the species-specific SCAR primers Fjav/Rjav. Results indicated the presence of M. javanica. This study confirms the need of using the three approaches for an accurate and effective RKN diagnosis.