Abstract
The impacts of a rapidly changing environment together with the growth in global trade activities has promoted new plant pest pandemic events in forest ecosystems. The pinewood nematode (PWN), Bursaphelenchus xylophilus, causes strong worldwide economic and ecological impacts. Direct control is performed through trunk injection of powerful nematicides, however many of these (hemi)synthetic compounds have raised ecological and human health concerns for affecting non-target species and accumulating in food products. As sustainable alternatives, essential oils (EOs) have shown very promising results. In this work, available literature on the direct activity of EOs against PWN is reviewed, as a contribution to advance the search for safer and greener biopesticides to be used in sustainable PWD pest management strategies. For the first time, important parameters concerning the bioassays performed, the PWNs bioassayed, and the EOs used are summarized and comparatively analyzed. Ultimately, an overview of the chemical composition of the most active EOs allowed to uncover preliminary guidelines for anti-PWN EO efficiency. The analysis of important information on the volatile phytochemicals composing nematicidal EOs provides a solid basis to engineer sustainable biopesticides capable of controlling the PWN under an integrated pest management framework and contributes to improved forest health.
Highlights
The present review reports, for the first time, the most important parameters used to ascertain essential oils (EOs) activity in direct contact bioassays against pinewood nematode (PWN) and discusses the chemical specifiers potentially responsible for PWN nematotoxicity
Several pest management techniques are currently used against pine wilt disease (PWD), no single management strategy can be considered effective in controlling PWN spread
With the ban imposed on hazardous pesticides and the recent fear of drug resistance on the PWN, in recent years, research efforts have shifted to the development of an environmentally safer control of invasive PWN populations through the use of biopesticides [18,39,52,53]
Summary
The pinewood nematode (PWN), Bursaphelenchus xylophilus (Steiner & Buhrer 1934), is classified as one of the top 10 PPNs with the highest global economic and scientific importance [3] This migratory plant endoparasite has gained increased attention after its recognition as the causal agent of pine wilt disease (PWD), a pathology responsible for the devastation of vast pine stands in Asian countries [4,5,6]. It is important to have a wide-ranging overview of the parameters that characterize the bioassays employed to analyze significant EOs, the variability of the EOs used, as well as their application and anti-nematode activity against B. xylophilus, for potential use in the research of sustainable pest management strategies. The present review reports, for the first time, the most important parameters used to ascertain EO activity in direct contact bioassays against PWN and discusses the chemical specifiers potentially responsible for PWN nematotoxicity
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