Diversity of plant parasitic nematodes associated with rhizosphere of maize from different areas of district Rajouri, Jammu and Kashmir, India

Abstract

Diversity of plant parasitic nematodes in the rhizosphere of maize (Zea mays) from some areas of District Rajouri, Jammu and Kashmir was studied. A total of ten plant parasitic nematode species were found to be associated with the rhizosphere of maize plants in these areas. The nematode species were Pratylenchus zeae, P. brachyurus, Helicotylenchus dihystera, Longidorus brevicaudatus, L. elongatus, Xiphinema diversicadatum, X. elongatum, Tylenchorhynchus spp. Ditylenchus spp. and Criconemoides spp. The most dominant and frequently occurring species was found to be P. zeae, with absolute frequency of 86.66% followed by P. brachyurus (80%), H. dihystera, (76.66%) and L. brevicaudatus (73.33). Contrarily, the least frequent was Criconemoides spp. (36.66%) followed by Tylenchorhynchus spp. and Ditylenchus spp. with absolute frequencies of 53.33% and 60%. Similar trend was observed in case of relative frequencies. In case of P. zeae, mean density of 56 and relative density of 16.05% was observed followed by P. brachyurus and H. dihystera with mean densities and relative densities of 50.33, 14.43% and 49, 14.04% respectively. On the other hand, Criconemoides spp. and Tylenchorhynchus spp. showed mean densities of 6.33 and 23.33 and absolute densities of 1.81% and 6.68% respectively. P. zeae exhibited high prominence value of 57.85 followed by P. brachyurus (49.96). The least prominence value was found in Criconemoides spp. (4.05) followed by Tylenchorhynchus spp. with prominence value of 18.30.