Unraveling differential effects of arbuscular mycorrhizal fungi species on the performance of tomato plants infected with the plant parasitic nematode Meloidogyne incognita

CACCIA, M. G.; NOVAK, VACLAV; JANOUKOVÁ, MARTINA; MARRO, NICOLÁS

Congreso; Plant Biology Europe meeting; 2023

Federation of the European Societies of Plant Biology

The aim of this study was to evaluate the effect of different strains of arbuscular mycorrhizal fungi (AMF) as biocontrol agents against the parasitic root knot nematode Meloidogyne incognita on tomato plants. In greenhouse, the experimental design had two factors: 1) AMF (4 treatments with different AMF isolates + non-AMF control), and 2) Nematodes (simultaneous inoculation withAMF [T1], inoculation 2 weeks after AMF [T2], and non-nematode control). After 60 days, nematodes in T1 reduced the biomass of non-AMF plants, while inoculation with any of the AMF isolates counterbalanced this deleterious effect. In T1, two out of the four AMF isolates increased the number of nematode galls, while one AMF isolate increased the nematode reproduction in T2. These results showed that AMF did not reduce nematode development but counteracted their damage on plants growth in T1. Gene expression analyses of plant hormones will be conducted to elucidate the complex plant-AMF-nematode interaction.