Comparisons of Pathological Responses in Carrot to Root-knot Nematodes

Carrot (Dacus carota var. sativus) is one of the top-ten most economically important vegetable crops produced worldwide, and the root-knot nematodes, Meloidogyne spp., are one of the most important pests in the carrot. In Korea, M. hapla and M. incognita are presumed to be the major root-knot nematodes distributing mostly in open carrot fields and greenhouses, respectively. In our study, currently-developed and commercial carrot cultivars and the parental lines were examined for their pathological responses to M. incognita and M. hapla 7 weeks after inoculation with about 1,000 second-stage juveniles (J2) of the nematodes. All the carrot cultivars and lines showed susceptible responses to both nematodes with the gall index (GI) of 2.4–4.4, which were always higher on the carrot plants infected with M. incognita than M. hapla. Gall sizes were remarkably larger with more serious reduction of the root growths in the plants infected with M. incognita than M. hapla, suggesting the carrot lines examined in our study were more susceptible to the former than the latter. In the infection sites of the root tissues, giant cells were more extensively formed, occupying larger stellar regions with the prominent destruction of adjacent xylem vessels by M. incognita than M. hapla. All of these results suggest M. incognita affect more seriously on the carrot plants that are grown in greenhouses, compared to M. hapla that has a major distribution in open carrot fields, which would be used for determining cropping systems based on target nematode species, their damage and pathological characteristics.