Journal of Phytopathology (2011) 159, 80-84

Marjanne De Weerdt, Linda Kox, Lieven Waeyenberge, Nicole Viaene and Carolien Zijlstra (2011)
A real-time PCR assay to identify Meloidogyne minor
Journal of Phytopathology 159 (2), 80-84
Abstract: Meloidogyne minor is a small root-knot nematode that causes yellow patch disease in golf courses and severe quality damage in potatoes. It was described in 2004 and has been detected in The Netherlands, England, Wales, Northern Ireland, Ireland and Belgium. The nematode often appears together with M. naasi on grasses. It causes similar symptoms on potato tubers as M. chitwoodi and M. fallax, which are both quarantine organisms in Europe. An accurate identification method therefore is required. This study describes a real-time PCR assay that enables the identification of M. minor after extraction of nematodes from soil or plant samples. Alignments of sequences of rDNA-ITS fragments of M. minor and five other Meloidogyne species were used to design a forward primer Mminor_f299, a specific primer Mminor_r362 and the specific MGB TaqMan probe P_Mm_MGB321. PCR with this primers and probe results in an amplicon of 64 bp. The analytical specificity of the real-time PCR assay was assessed by assaying it on six populations of M. minor and on 10 populations of six other Meloidogyne species. Only DNA from M. minor gave positive results in this assay. The assay was able to identify M. minor using DNA from a single juvenile independent from the DNA extraction method used.
(The abstract is excluded from the Creative Commons licence and has been copied with permission by the publisher.)
Link to article at publishers website
Database assignments for author(s): Carolien Zijlstra, Nicole M. Viaene, Lieven Waeyenberge, Linda F.F. Kox

Research topic(s) for pests/diseases/weeds:
identification/taxonomy
molecular biology - genes

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Pest and/or beneficial records:

Beneficial	Pest/Disease/Weed	Crop/Product	Country	Quarant.
	Meloidogyne minor	Grasses/turf/rangeland	Belgium
	Meloidogyne minor	Grasses/turf/rangeland	Ireland
	Meloidogyne minor	Grasses/turf/rangeland	Netherlands
	Meloidogyne minor	Grasses/turf/rangeland	United Kingdom