Communities of plant parasitic and free-living nematodes in Italian hop crops

Abstract

The cultivation of hop has had a notable expansion due to growing interest of craft beer in Italy in the past few years. Thus, surveys were conducted to evaluate nematodes associated with the Italian hop cultivations. The aims of this work were to determine the occurrence of plant parasite and virus-vector nematodes and to evaluate the ecosystem services associated with the control of plant parasitic nematodes. Six different sites located in North and Central Italy were monitored to assess the structure of nematode communities. Many plant parasitic nematodes widely distributed in Italy were found in association with hop plants such as Mesocriconema xenoplax and Heterodera spp. The Xiphinema genus was the most abundant and ubiquitous plant parasitic nematode. The most frequent species were X. pacthaicum followed by X. diversicaudatum, the Arabis mosaic virus (ArMV)-vector. Predators were not able to regulate the ecosystem pest control service. The agronomic strategies that adopted less intensive tillage practices, such as minimum tillage or cover grass, showed the best regulation.