Occurrence of the Root-Knot Nematode species in Vegetable Crops in Souss Region of Morocco

Root-knot nematodes ‘Meloidogyne spp’ are the most destructive group of plant parasitic nematodes causeing serious losses in vegetables crops and this damages worsened when crops grown under greenhouses conditions. In this sutdy, the distribution and characterization of root-knot nematode species collected from the Souss region of Morocco where vegetables crops intensively cultivated were determined by using both morphological and molecular tools. Out of the 110 samples collected from different greenhouses 91 (81.7%) were found to be infested with root-knot nematodes. Thirty-seven populations of root-knot nematodes were morphologically identified based on perineal patterns as well as molecularlly using species-specific primers. The obtained results indicated that Meloidogyne javanica and M. incognita were identified in 86.4% and 13.5% of the total populations, respectively. The lowest incidence of root-knot nematodes (64%) was found in Toussous, whereas the highest frequencies of 100% and 90% were detected in Taddart and Biogra, respectively. As the majority of the samples have been infested with Meloidogyne species; this indicates that there is an urgent need to provide farmers with a proper control strategy.