Plant-Parasitic Nematodes
Plant-Parasitic Nematodes
- Crop yield loss due to plant-parasitic nematodes could be total
- Symptoms of nematode damage are confused and assumed to be caused by other pests or pathogens or by abiotic stress
- Plant-parasitic nematodes are microscopic and difficulty to extract and identify, making them the “farmer’s hidden enemy”
- Billions of dollars are lost globally every year due to the destructive activities of the plant-parasitic nematodes
- Aside being pathogens, plant-parasitic nematodes transmit pathogenic bacterial, fungi, and viruses into healthy plant tissues and are participants in disease complexes
- To be effective, efforts aimed at controlling the plant-parasitic nematodes must include the entire assemblage of the larger nematode community structure
- Plant-parasitic nematodes can also be used as bioindicators of environmental conditions
