The cassava crop (Manihot esculenta) has socioeconomic importance to Brazil, however, there is a paucity of studies regarding the plant parasitic nematodes associated with cassava and the host reaction of cassava cultivars to nematodes. The aims of this work were to report the geographic distributions and new records of plant parasitic nematodes collected from cassava areas from the States of Acre, Amapá, Pará and Rondônia, Brazil. Additionally, the host reaction of different cassava cultivars to Meloidogyne incognita race 3, Pratylenchus brachyurus and P. zeae was studied in a greenhouse experiment. Nematodes were extracted from either 10 g of roots or 250 cm³ of soil by centrifugation and identified by microscopy. The most prevalent species was P. brachyurus detected from 37.1% of samples tested (n=35), follow by M. incognita (14.2%). Among the identified nematode species, the following associations constitute new records for Brazil: Helicotylenchus erythrinae, M. enterolobii and Xiphinema longicaudatum. Cassava cultivars Amazonas, Colônia Matapi, Manteiga, Pretinha and Pó-da-China from Amapá State and Colonial and Caipora from Acre State were all susceptible to M. incognita race 3. In contrast, two cultivars, Caipora and Colonial, were resistant to P. brachyurus (reproduction factor = 0.5 and 0.9, respectively) but immune to P. zeae. Data generated in this study may be useful in the agronomic management of cassava production in areas infested with the root lesion nematodes P. brachyurus and/or P. zeae.
Helicotylenchus erythrinae; Manihot esculenta; Meloidogyne enterolobii; Pratylenchus brachyurus; Pratylenchus zeae; resistance; Xiphinema longicaudatum
