First report of Meloidogyne species infecting Turnera subulata J. E. Smith from Chhattisgarh, India
Abstract
Gall symptoms were observed on the roots of Turnera subulata a flowering shrub of medicinal importance. Rhizosphere soil and infected root samples of T. subulata were collected from Jora, Krishaknagar, IGKV campus Raipur, Chhattisgarh. Second-stage juveniles (J2) of root knot nematode were isolated from diseased roots showing excessive gall formations on primary as well as secondary roots. Morphological and morphometrical findings after examination of the species conformed with descriptions of Genus Meloidogyne. This is the first report of Meloidogyne species infecting T. subulata in India as per the available literature scan.
Keywords
Download Options
Introduction
Turnera subulata belonging to the Turneraceae family is one of the most extensively distributed perennial flowering weed in the tropical and subtropical regions of Asia and Africa. T. subulata is infact a polymorphic polyploid complex of perennial weeds commonly called „Butter cup, sulphur alder and white alder‟. Plants are compact, thick herb with dark green foliage and light yellow or white flower having a dark base (Saravanan et al., 5). It is most widely adopted as an ornamental garden plant and important medicinal herb used in alternative traditional folk medicine for treatment of several types of chronic diseases. It has been reported as a fast naturalizing weed in Indian subcontinent (Kumar et al.,3)
Nematodes account for an estimated 14% of all worldwide plant losses and among them root-knot nematodes are the most common and destructive nematode pathogens. Most root-knot nematodes have avery wide host range (Mitkowski & Abawi,4). In India, the distribution of nematodes indifferent states has been documented in nematode distribution atlas by All India Coordinated Research Project (Nematodes) and published by Directorate of Information and Publications of Agriculture, Indian Council of Agricultural Research, New Delhi, India during 2010.
Stunting and leaf wilting symptoms were observed in few plants of Turnera subulata, (Figure 1a & b) grown as hedges in the Indira Gandhi Krishi Vishwavidyalaya Campus, Raipur. The plants when uprooted revealed the presence of galls on primary as well as on secondary roots (Figure 1c & d). Rhizospheric soil and infected root samples of T. subulata were collected from University campus. Around 20 percent of total plants were found to be associated with multiple galling on roots 1 (a) 1 (b) 1 (c) 1 (d)
FIGURE 1: Excessive galling/Multiple gall formation on Tunera subulata FIGURE 2: Mature root-knot females Meloidogyne FIGURE 3: Second-stage juveniles (j2) of species endoparasitically infecting the root tissue Meloidogyne species, the infective stage and was observed. vermiform in shape.
FIGURE 4: J4 stage of Meloidogyne species depicting the progression from juvenile to globose adult females
Conclusion
The morphological and morphometrical findings after examination of different stages of Meloidogyne species in Turnera subulata conformed with descriptions and measurements provided by Whitehead (6) and Hunt & Handoo (2). To our knowledge and literature scan, this is the first report of Meloidogyne species infecting Turnera subulata in India.
