2025/03/19 by M. J. Soule, Amy B. Peetz, Hannah Baker +2 · 1 voice
Agricultural and Biological Sciences · #Nematode management and characterization studies #Plant Disease Management Techniques #Agronomic Practices and Intercropping Systems
paper · pdf · doi:10.1094/phytofr-09-24-0107-fi
openalex publication_date 2025/03/19 · openalex created_date 2025/03/19 · openalex updated_date 2026/06/11
Meloidogyne chitwoodi is one of the most important soilborne pests of potato. Feeding by this plant-parasitic nematode on tubers results in blemishes that can make a potato unmarketable. Because of the low tolerance in the potato industry for M. chitwoodi, it is critical for diagnostic laboratories to be able to accurately identify and quantify M. chitwoodi to help growers make timely and informed management decisions. The objective of this research was to develop a quantitative PCR (qPCR) assay for the identification and quantification of M. chitwoodi. A 150-bp region of the heat shock protein 90 ( Hsp90) gene was the target for the TaqMan qPCR assay. The qPCR assay reliably detected one and three M. chitwoodi second-stage juveniles (J2s) 80 and 100% of the time, respectively. The qPCR assay did not cross-react with M. hapla, M. incognita, or with six other genera of plant-parasitic nematodes commonly found in the Pacific Northwest (Idaho, Oregon, and Washington). The qPCR reliably detected M. chitwoodi J2s in different soil types. When the qPCR assay was compared with morphological counts of almost 100 diagnostic samples, there was a positive correlation between M. chitwoodi density estimates produced by either diagnostic procedure. The assay is a robust method for the molecular identification and quantification of M. chitwoodi in the Pacific Northwest. [Formula: see text] Copyright © 2025 The Author(s). This is an open access article distributed under the CC BY-NC-ND 4.0 International license .