Fungi associated with black pepper plants in Quang Tri province (Vietnam), and interaction between Meloidogyne incognita and Fusarium solani

Abstract

During a survey of nurseries and plantations of black pepper plants in Quang Tri province in Vietnam during the rainy season of 2007, nine fungal taxa were isolated from the roots of the black pepper plants. Fusarium solani was found in about one out of four black pepper root samples examined but not in the nurseries and also not from black pepper plants younger than five years growing in plantations. Since in these nurseries about one out of two black pepper plants examined had yellow leaves, this observation suggests that another pathogen must be the initial cause of the yellowing of the leaves. A likely pathogenic candidate is M. incognita which was extracted from every single black pepper plant examined in the nurseries. During the same survey, we also observed that F. solani was not isolated from the roots of black pepper plants that did not had yellow leaves and that the percentage of black pepper plants with yellow leaves increased with increased frequency of occurrence of F. solani. This observation indicates that F. solani plays a role in the yellowing of the leaves of black pepper plants in a later stage of the development of the plants. The results of a greenhouse experiment showed the negative effects inoculation with M. incognita alone or in combination with F. solani may have on the percentage of black pepper plants with yellow leaves and on plant growth. No effect of inoculation with F. solani before, at the same time, or two weeks after inoculation with M. incognita on root galling and nematode reproduction was observed.

Keywords:

• frequency of occurrence
• nurseries
• Piper nigrum
• plantations
• plant-parasitic nematodes
• root galling
• root-knot nematodes
• survey
• yellowing of leaves

Acknowledgements

This research was made possible thanks to a Flemish Interuniversity Council (VLIR-UOS) PhD scholarship to T.T.T. Thuy. The authors thank the colleagues of the Plant Quarantine Diagnosis Centre, Post-entry Plant Quarantine Centre No. 1 in Hanoi and the Plant Protection Subdepartment in Quang Tri for their technical assistance. We would like to thank the local farmers for their permission to take samples from their fields and their help during the survey.