Abstract
Potato cyst nematodes (PCNs) are the most important potato pest causing major crop losses across the world with a quarantine status in many countries. In Morocco, several potato crops are infected with PCNs and the monitoring of potato production as well as the control of import and export of potato seeds are currently carried out by morphological methods. The present work was aimed to use molecular and morphometric methods for identifying and differentiating PCN species in Morocco for the first time. The morphological identification of PCN species from collected soil samples were carried out using the shape of the cysts, the length of the stylet, the number of cuticular ridges, and the Granek’s ratio. The J2 had a slightly shorter body length, the number of cuticular ridges was 9 and the Granek’s ratio averaged 2.2. The morphobiometric analysis revealed proximity of the Moroccan population to G. pallida species. PCNs sampled from contaminated fields were analyzed molecularly using PCR. DNA amplification was performed using the multiplex PCR method and PCR-RFLP from the ITS region of the total genomic DNA compared to multiplex PCR-specific DNA sequences. All confirmed the presence G. pallida in all samples of the Moroccan PCN populations.
Highlights
Potato cyst nematodes (PCNs) are soil-borne plant pests which have great economic importance to potato production that are internationally recognized quarantine pests (EPPO, 2004)
Granek’s ratio values less than 3 and reaching 2.2, the length of the stylet 22.6 μm and the number of cuticular ridges between the anus and the fenestra was 9. All these values were in conformity with reference data described for G. pallida (EPPO, 2017 PM 7/40)
This is the first time that G. pallida is reported from Morocco
Summary
Potato cyst nematodes (PCNs) are soil-borne plant pests which have great economic importance to potato production that are internationally recognized quarantine pests (EPPO, 2004). The plant parasitic nematode Globodera pallida (Stone, 1973) Behrens is the greatest threat to potato crops and other Solanaceous hosts (Sullivan, 2007). It originates from the Andean mountains of South America from where it was transported to other regions in the world by potato seed (EPPO, 2004; Marks and Brodie, 1998). G. pallida does not produce rapid and obvious symptoms on the potato especially for the first months of field infestation. It damages the roots and reduces the production yields. PCR with specific primers used in single or multiplex reactions and PCRRFLP (Restriction Fragment Length Polymorphisms) are among the tests developed to identify Globodera species (Fullaondo et al, 1999; Blok et al, 1998; Bulman and Marshall, 1997; Vejl et al, 2002)
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