Reproduction of corn lesion nematode on maize and white clover callus tissue cultures

Abstract

Maize (Zea mays L.) and 'white clover' (Trifolium repens L.) are the important crops throughout the world. Both sustain damage from many species of nematodes; however additional information is needed to develop reliable techniques for studying the interactions between these plants and the nematodes that parasitize them.An experiment was conducted to study the reproduction of the corn lesion nematode, Pratylenchus zeae Graham on callus of five maize inbred lines and three white clover cultivars for incubation periods of 30, 45, and 60 days.In maize test, highly significant differences were observed in nematode production overtime, while reproduction of P. zeae did not diffar significantly among five inbred lines.The analysis showed non significant differences in nematode number per gram of callus either among three white clover cultivars or among periodes of incubation. The maize inbreds and white clover cultivars did not exhibit a wide range in levels of resistance of the corn lesion nematode.