Monacrosporium ellipsosporiwn was frequently observed associated with Meloidogyne egg masses in some field soils and in potted cultures of the nematode. Six geographic isolates varied in their relative predacity toward larvae emerging from egg masses. An aggressive isolate, chosen for rapidity and abundance of trap formation in vitro, was tested in greenhouse and field tests for protection of t...

A split-root technique was used to examine the interaction between Pratylenchus penetrans and the cortical root-rotting pathogen Rhizoctonia fragariae in strawberry black root rot. Plants inoculated with both pathogens on the same half of a split-root crown had greater levels of root rot than plants inoculated separately or with either pathogen alone. Isolation of R. fragariae from field-grown ...

The nematophagous fungus Arthrobotrys oligospora captures nematodes using adhesive polymers present on special hyphae (traps) which form a three-dimensional network. To understand further the adhesion mechanisms, A. oligospora surface polymers were visualized by transmission electron microscopy and characterized by chemical methods. Both traps and hyphae were surrounded by a fibrillar layer of ...

A series of experiments were performed to examine the population dynamics of the sugarbeet cyst nematode, Heterodera schachtii, and the nematophagus fungus Dactylella oviparasitica. After two nematode generations, the population densities of H. schachtii were measured in relation to various initial infestation densities of both D. oviparasitica and H. schachtii. In general, higher initial popul...

A real-time PCR assay was developed to quantify in soil the fungus Hirsutella minnesotensis, an important parasite of secondary-stage juvenile (J2) of the soybean cyst nematode. A primer pair 50-GGGAGGCCCGGTGGA-30 and 50-TGATCCGAGGTCAACTTCTGAA-30 and a TaqMan probe 50-CGTCCGCCGTAAAACGCCCAAC-30 were designed based on the sequence of the ITS region of the rRNA gene. The primers were highly specie...

Trophic interactions of introduced biocontrol fungi with soil animals can bea key determinant in the fungal proliferation and activity.This study investigated trophic interaction of an introduced biocontrol fungus with soil nematodes. The biocontrol fungusTrichoderma harzianum ThzID1-M3 and the fungivorous nematode Aphelenchoides sp. (10 per gram of soil) were added to nonsterile soil, and micr...

Plants lack the seemingly unlimited receptor diversity of a somatic adaptive immune system as found in vertebrates and rely on only a relatively small set of innate immune receptors to resist a myriad of pathogens. Here, we show that disease-resistant tomato plants use an efficient mechanism to leverage the limited nonself recognition capacity of their innate immune system. We found that the ex...

The sensitivities of acetylcholinesterases (ACHE) from the fungus-feeder Aphelenchus avenae and the plant-parasitic species Helicotylenchus dihystera and Pratylenchus penetrans and the housefly, Musca domestica, were compared using a radiometric assay which utilized H(3) acetylcholine as a substrate. Nematode ACHE were generally less sensitive to inhibition by organophosphorns and carbamate pes...

Individual nematodes were isolated from American chestnut blight-controlled cankers to determine if they were carriers of biocontrol (hypovirulent) isolates of the chestnut blight fungus, Cryphonectria parasitica. These hypovirulent isolates have a white fungal colony phenotype due to infection by the virus CHV1. Of 1,620 individual Aphelenchoides hylurgi isolated, 29.4% carried propagules of t...

Biological control of animal parasites could become a strong arm for Integrated Parasite Control in the very near future. Though various nematode-destroying fungi received attention, predominantly on academic interest, from the 18th Century in Scandinavian countries, work on their application to control animal parasites gathered momentum from 1990's. The philosophy behind biological control is ...