Abstract
Among the root-knot nematodes three <i>Meloidogyne</i> species namely <i>Meloidogyne incognita, M. javanica</i>, and <i>M. arenaria</i> are emerging as an important pest of many cultivated plants, and recognized as the most economically destructive plant parasitic nematodes species of all over the world. Although other root-knot nematodes may virulent for plant but limited information is available. Thus, a comprehensive bioinformatics analysis including sequence acquisition, multiple sequence alignment and the phylogenetic tree construction for well-known <i>Meloidogyne</i> species was employed to predict the emerging virulent species. About eighty seven (87) 18S rRNA sequences of three damaging <i>Meloidogyne</i> species (<i>M. javanica, M. arenaria</i> and <i>M. incognita</i>) were retrieved from NCBI database, and allowed to construct phylogenetic trees using both NJ and ME methods of Molecular Evolution Genetic Analysis (MEGA) tools. Phylogeny analysis revealed that <i>M. enterolobii_1, M. sp._Mi_c3a, M. sp_Mj_c1a</i> and <i>M._sp._Mj_c3a</i> are genetically as well as evolutionally related to existing well recognized virulent nematodes. Moreover, evolutionally emerging strains of existing virulent species of <i>M. javanica, M. arenaria</i> and <i>M. incognita</i> along with the predicted virulence nematodes could become a great challenge to agriculture. The study could initiate the further analysis for novel insights in the pathogenesis of emerging virulence species of <i>Meloidogyne</i> that must be needed for future crop management strategies.
Highlights
Root-knot nematodes (RKN) are belong to Meloidogyne genus, are microscopic obligate endo-parasites that live in soil
Obtained sequences were blasted in the National Centre for Biotechnology Information database (NCBI) database that revealed total 87 sequences of different Meloidogyne species, which were further used for phylogenetic analysis (Table 1)
Multiple Sequence Alignment obtained from Clustal omega revealed that maximum similarity of Meloidogyne incognita, M. javanica, and M. arenaria was found with M. enterolobii_1, M. sp._Mi_c3a, M. sp_Mj_c1a and M._sp._Mj_c3a strains (Figure 1)
Summary
Root-knot nematodes (RKN) are belong to Meloidogyne genus, are microscopic obligate endo-parasites that live in soil. RKN feed on the roots of a wide range of plant species [1,2,3] and consider as an important pathogen of numerous plants including food crops, and known as the most economically destructive genus of plant parasitic nematodes in the world [4, 5]. The severity of yield loss can range from minimal to total depending on the infesting RKN species and crop variety, season, soil type and use of crop rotation [6,7,8,9]. Distribution of Meloidogyne species is depends on the ability of these obligate root parasites to become established during overwinter in a geographic area. Among the reported 90 Meloidogyne species, M. incognita, M. javanica, and M. arenaria are most damaging [10,11,12]
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