First report of the stubby-root nematode Nanidorus minor infecting Paspalum vaginatum, seashore paspalum grass in Georgia, USA

Ganpati B Jagdale; Fereidoun Forghani; Katherine Martin; Abolfazl Hajihassani; Alfredo Dick Martinez-Espinoza

doi:10.21307/jofnem-2020-106

First report of the stubby-root nematode Nanidorus minor infecting Paspalum vaginatum, seashore paspalum grass in Georgia, USA

J Nematol. 2020 Nov 10:52:e2020-106. doi: 10.21307/jofnem-2020-106. eCollection 2020.

Authors

Ganpati B Jagdale¹, Fereidoun Forghani², Katherine Martin¹, Abolfazl Hajihassani², Alfredo Dick Martinez-Espinoza³

Affiliations

¹ Extension Nematology Lab, Department of Plant Pathology, University of Georgia, Athens, Georgia, 30602.
² Department of Plant Pathology, University of Georgia, Tifton, GA, 31794.
³ Department of Plant Pathology, University of Georgia, Griffin, GA, 30223.

Abstract

We found that Nanidorus spp. was pathogenic to seashore paspalum (Paspalum vaginatum) turfgrass as its population increased from 100 to 2,080 nematodes per pot 180 days after inoculation under greenhouse conditions. Morphological measurements of adult females were similar to those described for N. minor. Molecular analysis also confirmed the morphological identification by targeting three different regions of the genomic DNA. Three primer pairs targeting 18S rDNA (360F/932R), 28S rDNA (D2A/D3B) and ITS1 rDNA (BL18/5818) were used in singleplex PCR. Forward and reverse sequences of each individual primer set were then subjected to multiple alignment and the complimentary sequences were assembled into a consensus sequence. Upon nucleotide blast on the NCBI website, they were all confirmed to be N. minor. A one-step multiplex PCR method using specific primers and a fragment size of 190 bp also confirmed the identity of N. minor. To the best of our knowledge, this is the first report of N. minor infecting seashore paspalum turfgrass in Georgia.

Keywords: Diagnosis; Georgia; Nanidorus minor; Paspalum grass; Turfgrass.