Reproduction of eight populations of Heterodera ciceri on selected plant species

Abstract

Investigations were undertaken in 1994-96 to asses differences in the reproduction of eight populations of the chickpea cyst nematode, Heterodera Gicer?, from Jordan, Lebanon, Syria and Turkey on twenty-one plant species. Two sets of plastic pots, containing soil artificially infested with 20 eggs/g of the nematode, were prepared and seeds of each plant species or line were sown and kept in a plastic-house at 20 ± 2 0c. The plants in the first set were uprooted two months after emergence to count nematode life stages in the roots, while the other set was left for a further month to determine the population densities of nematodes in soil. All plants were infested but females and cysts occurred in large numbers only in the roots of chickpea, lentil, grass pea, pea and in some plants of Cicer reticula tum and C. bijugum. Few females were found in the roots of haricot bean. In the roots of C. pinnatifidum, annual medics and alfalfa large number of females occurred only of the populations from Kirbasi (Turkey) and Tel Hadya (Syria). Density of all nematode populations in soil, generally increased only in pots sown to chickpea, lentil, grass pea, pea and in some pots planted with C. reticulatum and C. bijugum; there was little increase of the Tel Hadya population on annual medics and alfalfa and of this popu13tion and that from Kirbasi on C. pinnatifidum. Results indicate that differences exist between reproduction potential of populations of H. ciceri from different geographical origin.