Molecular characterization of species and populations of Meloidogyne from various geographic origins with repeated-DNA homologous probes

Sixteen populations from various geographic origins, mostly belonging to the four economical major species of iVfeloidogyne, were characterized by analyzing the restriction fragment length polymorphism obtained after digestion and hybridization of their total DNA with labelled homologous probes. These probes were repeated sequences isolated at random from a genomic Iibrary constructed with DNA of M. incogniLa « Côte d'Ivoire" juveniles. The results revealed taxonomically useful differences in the number and position of restriction fragments, both between species and populations. Moreover, we have observed species-specific profiles for the three main species, M. incogniLa, M. arenaria and M. javanica.