Review Article
Year: 2020 | Month: March | Volume: 7 | Issue: 3 | Pages: 379-386
Plant-Parasitic Nematodes: Nature’s Most Successful Plant Parasite
Yogendra Kumar1, Bindhya Chal Yadav2
1Assistant Professor, Department of Botany, Govt Degree College Nanauta, Saharanpur
2Assistant Professor, Department of Botany, Govt PG College Fatehabad, Agra
Corresponding Author: Yogendra Kumar
ABSTRACT
Nematodes are thread-like roundworms that live in a wide range of environments including soil and fresh and salt water. There are species of nematodes that feed on fungi, bacteria, protozoans, other nematodes, and plants. They can also parasitize insects, humans, and animals. Nematodes that feed on plant parts are called plant parasitic nematodes (PPN) and are ubiquitous in agricultural soils. The life cycle of a nematode includes eggs, juveniles and adults, and they can overwinter at any of these stages. Crop damage is the result of a complex interaction of the environment, initial nematode populations at planting, the pathogenicity of the nematode species and the ability of the plant to tolerate nematode feeding. Most PPNs feed by piercing and killing root cells with needle-like structures called stylets. Nematodes that utilize this type of feeding include lesion, lance, needle, sting, stunt, and sting nematodes. Some of the most economically damaging nematodes like the root knot nematode (RKN) enter roots and establish a permanent feeding sites where they complete their life cycles without killing the cells around them. Symptoms associated with nematode infection are similar to those caused by impaired root growth and function, therefore they may resemble abiotic stress like drought and nutritional deficiencies as well as biotic factors like stem and root rots. General symptoms from nematodes include yellowing, stunting, and wilting, accompanied by a yield decline. In the case of SCN, signs of infection are white-to-pale-yellow female bodies present in roots that can be seen with the naked eye. Nonetheless, above ground symptoms are not always obvious and infections can go undetected until populations are well-beyond economic thresholds. The RKN causes root galling, however, the degree of galling may depend on the interaction between the plant and the RKN species.
Keywords: Nematode, root-knot, Meloidogyne PPN
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