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Etiology

Effects of Pratylenchus vulnus on the Gnotobiotic Growth of Myrobalan Plum Seedlings. E. H. Moody, Extension Plant Pathologist, Department of Plant Pathology, University of Georgia, Athens, GA 30602 (formerly Staff Research Associate, Division of Nematology, University of California, Davis, CA 95616); B. F. Lownsbery, Professor, Division of Nematology, University of California, Davis 95616. Phytopathology 66:1276-1278. Accepted for publication 11 May 1976. Copyright © 1976 The American Phytopathological Society, 3340 Pilot Knob Road, St. Paul, MN 55121. All rights reserved.. DOI: 10.1094/Phyto-66-1276.

The growth and development of Myrobalan plum seedlings (cultivar 3J) maintained under gnotobiotic conditions for 10 weeks was inhibited by the root-lesion nematode, Pratylenchus vulnus. Root systems of nematode-infected plants were darker than those of noninfected controls and had many small lesions on feeder roots. Eggs, larvae, and adults were present in these lesions, and P. vulnus was feeding on healthy tissue at the lesion borders. Large secondary lesions did not develop during the 10 weeks of this experiment. The population density of P. vulnus increased more than 17-fold over the original inoculum level.