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Abstract
The effects of the endoparasitic fungus Hirsutella minnesotensis on populations of Meloidogyne hapla from Michigan (MI), Rhode Island (RI), Connecticut (CT), Lyndonville, New York (NYL), Geneva, New York (NYG), and Wisconsin (WI) were studied in the greenhouse. Twenty-day-old tomato (cv. Rutgers) seedlings were inoculated with either 0 or 600 eggs of each nematode population mixed with either 0, 0.02, or 0.1 g of fresh H. minnesotensis mycelium 0.1 L−1 of soil in pots containing 0.5 L of soil, and maintained at 25±2°C for 2 months. No effect of the fungal treatments and nematode treatments on tomato plant heights and shoot dry weights was observed. While all M. hapla populations were suppressed by H. minnesotensis, the degree to which each population was affected varied slightly. Across fungal treatments and nematode populations, the fungus reduced total number of nematodes in roots by 61–98%, with the highest for NYG and RI, intermediate for NYL and CT, and lowest for MI and WI populations. The study demonstrated that H. minnesotensis may be used as a potential suppressor of M. hapla in vegetable production systems in the Great Lakes Region.
Acknowledgments
We thank T. Kerchkof and R. Pereault for technical assistance, Drs G. Abawi (NY), J. A. LaMondia (CT), N. A. Mitkowski (RI), and A. E. MacGuidwin (WI) for providing the nematode populations, Dr T. Powers, University of Nebraska, for confirming the M. hapla populations by DNA analyses, and Dr G. R. Noel, University of Illinois, for reviewing an earlier version of the manuscript. The project was funded in part by a grant from USDA/CGP/MBT Program (02-51102-01948) to the last author.