MITOCHONDRIAL HAPLOTYPE-BASED IDENTIFICATION OF ROOT-KNOT NEMATODES, MELOIDOGYNE ARENARIA AND MELOIDOGYNE HAPLA, INFECTING KIWIFRUIT IN TURKEY

Abstract

Kiwifruit (Actinidia deliciosa [A. Chev.] C. F. Liang et A. R. Ferguson, Actinidiaceae) is an important commercial temperate fruit crop grown in different parts of the world. Root-knot nematodes (Meloidogyne spp.), are one of the most damaging plant-parasitic nematodes in kiwifruit growing regions. Among them, M. arenaria and M., hapla are both important root-knot nematode species of kiwifruit. Northern root-knot nematode, M. hapla, is one of the most damaging plant-parasitic nematodes in temperate regions. During the 2016 kiwi growing season, root-knot nematode-infested kiwi roots were obtained from one kiwi orchard located in the district of Altinordu, Ordu, Turkey. The identification of Meloidogyne species was confirmed by morphological, morphometric, and molecular characters based on amplification of two mitochondrial DNA regions that span the spacer and part of the adjacent large subunit rRNA (lrDNA) gene. The size of the intergenic spacer and sequence polymorphisms in the lrDNA that were revealed following digestion with the restriction enzymes HinfI and MnlI were used to assign haplotypes. The causal pests were identified as M. hapla and M. arenaria. This is the first record of M. hapla and M. arenaria infecting kiwi plants in Turkey.