Seed-borne and seed-associated nematodes: An overview

Abstract

Seed is the basic and critical input for crop production, and almost 90% of all the world’s food crops are grown from seeds. Diverse groups of plant-parasitic nematodes are associated with variety of seed including seed tissues and/or propagating materials. Seed/propagating materials are the means for survival of plant-parasitic nematodes between growing seasons and also serve as effective means for introducing nematodes to new areas at local, regional and national levels. Some of the nematodes survive in true seeds in anhydrobiotic stage and survive for a long period in or on contaminated or infected seed. Consequently, they can be spread over vast distances in the commercial distribution of seed. Many of the plant-parasitic nematodes are known to survive and disseminate through edible roots, corms, rhizomes and tubers. The infested seed/propagating materials act as a source of inoculum for disease development that in turn cause both qualitative and quantitative losses to wide range of agricultural crops. In this chapter, economically important plant-parasitic nematodes associated with true seed, seed tissues and/or propagating materials are reviewed briefly.