Authors: Milena Caccia Paola Lax Marcelo E Doucet
Publish Date: 2012/08/16
Volume: 49, Issue: 1, Pages: 105-109
Abstract
Nacobbus aberrans is a sedentary endoparasite nematode that forms galls in the roots of infected plants and produces important economic losses in some countries of the American continent It has a wide host range attacking mainly potato tomato sugar beet and pepper crops A reduction in the plantparasitic nematode populations in the presence of entomopathogenic nematodes EPNs has been frequently reported In the present work the effect of the application of two native EPN isolates Steinernema rarum and Heterorhabditis bacteriophora on a N aberrans population was evaluated in tomato plants under greenhouse conditions Sixty days after inoculation the number of galls and egg masses and the reproduction factor RF of N aberrans were calculated Of the variables analyzed only the RF was significantly lower in both EPN treatments than in control N aberrans reproduction decreased by 57 and 53 in plants inoculated with S rarum and H bacteriophora respectively These results showed that EPNs and their bacterial symbionts affected the reproductive potential of the N aberrans population This is the first study addressing the use of EPNs in the control of this important plantparasitic nematode
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