A Note on Soil and Plant Parasitic Nematodes Associated with Mulberry Plants in India

Abstract

Mulberry plants are mainly cultivated in five States of India, viz., Andhra Pradesh, Karnataka, Jammu & Kashmir, Tamil Nadu and West Bengal. But moriculture, cultivation of mulberry plants in India, suffers from several biotic threats, such as, arthropod pests, nematode parasites, protozoan parasites and diseases caused by fungi, bacteria and viruses. Of these biotic stresses, nematode parasites cause severe damages to mulberry plants that reduce the growth and quality of the plant. Root-knot nematode parasite, Meloidogyne incognita, affecting mulberry plants is wide-spread and well worked in India. But there is dearth work on diversity and distribution of nematodes associated with mulberry plants in the country except from the State of Manipur wherein 83 nematode species belonging to 4 orders are recorded. In the present paper, a total of 89 nematode species under 4 orders associated with soil and mulberry plants are communicated along with their nature of associations with mulbarry plants at the generic and family level.