Pierre Abad, Bruno Favery, Marie-Noëlle Rosso and Philippe Castagnone-Sereno
INRA, Unité Interactions Plantes-Microorganismes et Santé Végétale, 123 Bd. Francis Meilland, BP2078, 06606 Antibes Cedex, France
| Taxonomy: | Eukaryota; Metazoa; Nematoda; Chromadorea; order Tylenchida; Tylenchoidea; Heteroderidae; genus Meloidogyne. |
| Physical Properties: | Microscopic-non-segmented worms. Meloidogyne species can reproduce by apomixis, facultative meiotic parthenogenesis or obligate mitotic parthenogenesis. Obligate biotrophic parasites inducing the re-differentiation of plant cells into specialized feeding cells. |
| Hosts: | Meloidogyne spp. can infest more than 3000 plant species including vegetables, fruit trees, cereals and ornamental flowers. |
| Disease Symptoms: | Root swellings called galls. Alteration of the root vascular system. |
| Disease control: | Cultural control, chemical control, resistant cultivars. |
| Agronomic importance: | Major threat to agriculture in temperate and tropical regions. |
Fig. 1 Symptoms of Meloidogyne incognita attack on Ficus roots.
