First report of northern root-knot nematode, Meloidogyne hapla (Chitwood, 1949) on strawberry in Turkey

Strawberry is one of the most economically important crops worldwide. Several species of plant-parasitic nematodes have been reported to be pathogenic on strawberries, among them the northern root-knot nematode (Meloidogyne hapla), which considered to be strawberry most important nematode pest worldwide. In August 2019, strawberry growers at Silifke (Mersin, Turkey) identified nematode-like symptoms on strawberry roots and infected seedlings were brought to the nematology laboratory at of Mersin University for diagnostics. Roots were separated into small pieces and nematode extraction was performed by a modified Baermann funnel method and identified under the microscope. DNA was extracted from individual nematodes using Worm Lysis Buffer(WLB (+)). The species-specific SCAR markers (JMV1, JMV2, and JMVhapla) yielded a 440 bp band specific to M. hapla. The 28S rRNA gene region, obtained using the general primers D2\D3, sequence was analysed from. The analyzed sequence was 100% identicle to M. hapla. The gene sequences were deposited into GenBank database with accession numbers MN897751 and MN895037. Both morphological and molecular diagnostic methods confirmed that the strawberry plants collected in Silifke were infested with M. hapla. To our best knowledge this is the first report of plant-parasitic nematode species M. hapla infecting strawberry in Turkey. Currently, the adverse effect of RKN on strawberry production in the region is unknown to strawberry growers.