Response of cultivars of wheat to Meloidogyne artiellia

Abstract

Meloidogyne artiellia Franklin, is an important nematode in the Mediterranean area especially on leguminous crops as chickpea (Cicer arietinum L.) (Greco, 1984), but also it causes severe damage to durum wheat (Triticum durum Desf.) in Italy (Di Vito et al., 1987), Greece (Kyrou, 1969), France (Ritter, 1972) and Spain (Tobar-Jimenez, 1973). The nematode has a wide host range and can reproduce very well on cereals, cruciferous and leguminous plants (Di Vito et al., 1985). Therefore its control, by crop rotations, is difficult as well as chemical control. A glasshouse experiment was undertaken to investigate the response of some Italian cultivars of wheat to M. artiellia.