Interaction between Nacobbus aberrans and Glomus intraradices in tomato.

LAX PAOLA; BECERRA ALEJANDRA; SOTERAS FLORENCIA; CABELLO MARTA; DOUCET MARCELO

Maceió, Alagoas State, Brazil

Congreso; 2nd International Congress of Tropical Nematology; 2009

Several studies have reported that root colonization by Glomus spp. increases tolerance of the host plant to some plant-parasitic nematodes. Information about the effects of the interaction between arbuscular mycorrhizal fungi (AMF) and N. aberrans is scarce. The possible protective effect of G. intraradices on tomato plants (cv. Platense) inoculated with an N. aberrans population from Lisandro Olmos (Buenos Aires, Argentina) was studied under greenhouse conditions. Four treatments were performed, which consisted in inoculating tomato plants with: a) AMF at transplanting (zero time=T0), b) nematodes at T0, c) AMF + nematodes at T0, d) AMF in T0 + nematodes after 3 weeks. Five replications per treatment were performed. Each plant was inoculated with 100 second-stage nematode juveniles and 980 AMF spores. After 80 days, reproduction factor of N. aberrans (RF=final density/initial density) was calculated and percentage of arbuscular mycorrhizal colonization (% AMC) in roots was estimated. Treatments c and d did not show significant differences in RF values (RFc=17.9; RFd=15.8) and % AMC obtained (%AMCc=45.7%; %AMCd=47.4%). By contrast, differences between treatments c and d and controls were observed (%AMCa=30%; RFb=42.8). AMF inoculation of tomato at transplanting and subsequent infection by nematodes three weeks later produced a greater percentage of AMF colonization and lower parasite reproduction. This experiment shows the importance of conducting further studies in this field because of the potential benefits they would have in the management of the nematode populations. This is the first study of the interaction between G. intraradices and N. aberrans in Argentina.