Pathogenicity of Meloidogyne spp. (Tylenchida: Meloidogynidae) from Brazil and Central America on two genotypes of Coffea arabica

Patogenicidade de Meloidogyne spp. (Tylenchida: Meloidogynidae) originárias do Brasil e América Central a dois genótipos de Coffea arabica

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Pathogenicity of Meloidogyne spp. (Tylenchida: Meloidogynidae) from Brazil and Central America on two genotypes of Coffea arabica

Patogenicidade de Meloidogyne spp. (Tylenchida: Meloidogynidae) originárias do Brasil e América Central a dois genótipos de Coffea arabica

Regina M.D.G. Carneiro^I; Luiz F.G. de Mesquita^I; Wallace Gonçalves^II; Antônio A. Pereira^III

^IEmbrapa Recursos Genéticos e Biotecnologia, 70849-970, Brasília, DF, Brazil

^IIInstituto Agronômico de Campinas - IAC, Seção de Café, 13001-970, Campinas, SP, Brazil

^IIIEmpresa de Pesquisa Agropecuária de Minas Gerais - EPAMIG, 36570-000, Viçosa, MG, Brazil

ABSTRACT

Among the most damaging root-knot nematode species, Meloidogyne exigua, M. paranaensis, M. incognita, M. arabicida, M. izalcoensis and M. mayaguensis are major agronomic constraints in coffee-growing areas in Brazil and other Latin American countries. The resistance reaction to those six species was studied for the H 419-5-4-5-2 progeny, derived from the artificial hybridization between Catuaí Amarelo 'IAC 30' x Timor Hybrid UFV 445-46 selection. The Catuaí Vermelho IAC 144 genotype was used as susceptibility control for Meloidogyne spp. The genotypes were inoculated with 6,000 eggs/plant and the experiment was set up in a completely randomized design, replicated 10 times for each Meloidogyne species and genotype. The evaluation was performed at 240 days after inoculation and the reproduction factor (RF= Final population/6000) was used as the variable to evaluate resistance. M. exigua caused typical rounded galls mostly on new roots, and egg-masses were produced mostly in the cortex under the root epidermis. M. incognita, M. paranaensis and M. arabicida caused swollen roots, peeling and cracking of cortical root tissue. No symptoms were observed for M. mayaguensis. M. izalcoensis induced very small galls, mostly on the extremity of new roots. Egg-masses were produced outside the roots in large quantities. The genotype IAC 144 was susceptible (FR>1.0) to all Meloidogyne spp. studied, except to M. mayaguensis. The nematode isolate used in this experiment seems to be a weak parasite for coffee. The H 419-5-4-5-2 progeny was resistant to M. exigua (FR<1) and susceptible to M. incognita, M. paranaensis, M. arabicida and M. izalcoensis.

Key words: Meloidogyne exigua, M. paranaensis, M. incognita, M. arabicida, M. izalcoensis, M. mayaguensis, resistance, coffee.

RESUMO

Entre as espécies de nematóides de galhas mais danosas ao cafeeiro, Meloidogyne exigua, M. paranaensis, M. incognita, M. arabicida, M. izalcoensis e M. mayaguensis são as que causam os maiores problemas em áreas de cultivo de café no Brasil e países da América Latina. A reação de resistência a essas seis espécies foi estudada na progênie H 419-5-4-5-2, obtida do cruzamento artificial entre a cultivar Catuaí Amarelo IAC 30 com a seleção de Híbrido de Timor UFV 445-46. As genótipos foram inoculados com 6.000 ovos/planta e o experimento foi conduzido no delineamento inteiramente ao acaso, com 10 repetições para cada espécie de Meloidogyne e cada genótipo de cafeeiro. A avaliação foi realizada 240 dias após a inoculação. O Fator de Reprodução (FR= População Final/6000) foi usado como variável para se avaliar a resistência. M. exigua causou galhas arredondadas típicas, sobretudo nas raízes novas. M. incognita, M. paranaensis e M. arabicida causaram engrossamento nas raízes, descolamento cortical e rachaduras em várias partes do sistema radicular.Nenhum sintoma foi observado para M. mayaguensis. M. izalcoensis causou galhas pequenas, a maioria na extremidade das raízes novas. As massas de ovos foram produzidas externamente e em grande número. O genótipo IAC 144 (testemunha) foi suscetível (FR>1.0) a todas espécies de Meloidogyne, exceto a M. mayaguensis. Esse isolado mostrou-se um parasita fraco para o cafeeiro. A progênie H 419-5-4-5-2 foi resistente a M. exigua e M. mayaguensis (FR<1) e suscetível a M. incognita, M. paranaensis, M. arabicida e M. izalcoensis.

Palavras chaves: Meloidogyne exigua, M. paranaensis, M. incognita, M. arabicida, M. izalcoensis, M. mayaguensis, resistência, café.

Meloidogyne spp. have a substantial economic impact on production in almost all coffee-producing regions in many countries. In Brazil and Central America six species are known to cause serious damage: M. exigua Goeldi, 1887 in Brazil and Costa Rica (Campos & Vilain, 2005), M. paranaensis Carneiro et al., 1996 in Brazil and Guatemala, M. incognita (Kofoid & White, 1919) Chitwood, 1949 in Brazil, Guatemala, El Salvador, Costa Rica, Nicaragua and Cuba, M. arabicida López & Salazar, 1989 in Costa Rica, M. mayaguensis Rammah & Hirschmann, 1988 in Cuba (Campos & Villain, 2005) and M. izalcoensis Carneiro et al., 2005 in El Salvador.

Resistance to M. incognita races, M. exigua, M. paranaensis, and M. coffeicola has been found in many Brazilian coffee germplasm lines, which makes it possible in the future to obtain resistant cultivars for either rootstock or direct planting in the field. Several lines of C. canephora and C. congensis have shown resistance to race 3 of M. incognita, and some progenies of Sarchimor (derived from crossing Villa Sarchi and Timor Hybrid) and 'Icatu' (an advanced line derived from crossing C. arabica x C. canephora), have shown moderate resistance to M. paranaensis (Campos & Villain, 2005).

In coffee trees, several C. arabica lines have been previously identified as derived from the interspecific Timor Hybrid (wild C. arabica x C. canephora) that displayed resistance to M. exigua. This resistance has been confirmed to come from the C. canephora progenitor (Bertrand et al., 2001). Resistance to M. exigua is controlled by a simple inherited major gene, called the Mex-1 locus (Noir et al., 2003).

Considering the great diversity of Meloidogyne species (Carneiro et al., 2004), it is of prime importance to assess the pathogenicity of Meloidogyne spp. on coffee genotypes. The present study investigated the pathogenicity of those six species of Meloidogyne on two selected C. arabica genotypes: Catuaí Vermelho IAC 144 (susceptible) and a new progeny H 419-5-4-5-2 (Catuaí Vermelho IAC 30 x Timor Hybrid UFV 445-46).

Six species of Meloidogyne were assessed in this work, four from Brazil: M. exigua (Lavras, MG, coffee), M. paranaensis (Londrina, PR, coffee), M. incognita race 1 (Avilândia, SP., coffee) and M. mayaguensis (Petrolina, PE, guava) and two from Central America: M. arabicida (Costa Rica, coffee) and M. izalcoensis (El Salvador, coffee).

The C. arabica genotypes came from the Instituto Agronômico de Campinas ('IAC 144', Catuaí Vermelho) and Empresa de Pesquisa Agropecuária de Minas Gerais - EPAMIG (H 419-5-4-5-2, a progeny derived from Catuaí Vermelho' x Timor Hybrid. The Timor Hybrid is the result of natural hybridization between C. arabica and C. canephora, which occurred in Timor island.

One experiment was undertaken in a greenhouse at 25-30°C. The plant arrangement was completely randomized, replicated 10 times for each Meloidogyne species and genotype. Two months after transplanting i.e. when they had at least two pairs of leaves, coffee plants were inoculated with 6,000 eggs/plant extracted by Hussey & Baker's method (1973) and counted on Peters slides. The evaluation was done 240 days after inoculation; the plant development measurements were taken, and the reproduction factor (RF= Final population/6,000) was used as the variable to evaluate resistance. The galling and egg-mass index (Taylor & Sasser, 1978) was used as a second variable.

There was no significant difference between the six Meloidogyne species for plant height. The roots' fresh weight was significantly higher when coffee 'Catuaí' was infected with M. exigua, which caused several elongated or round galls mostly on new roots; egg masses were produced generally in the cortex under the root epidermis. M. incognita, M. paranaensis and M. arabicida caused swollen roots, peeling and cracking of cortical root tissue; such symptoms could not be quantified. The egg masses were produced outside the roots in M. incognita parasitized plants and outside and under the root epidermis in M. paranaensis and M. arabicida. M izalcoensis caused very small galls, mostly on the extremity of new roots. Egg-masses were produced outside the roots and in large quantities (Figure 1). No galls and egg masses were observed in plants inoculated with M. mayaguensis.

The galling and egg-mass indexes were not reliable indicators of nematode multiplication rates (data not included) because the symptoms of damage caused by different species of Meloidogyne on coffee were variable and difficulty to quantify. Based on these findings, the best variable is the number of eggs/g of roots or the reproduction factor (RF). This result disagrees with observations made by Hernandez et al. (2004), who considered galling index as a relatively good indicator of nematode multiplication rate. Our results showed this variable is suitable for quantifying M. exigua and M. izalcoensis only.

M. mayaguensis from guava was unable to develop on genotype Catuaí and progeny H 419-5-4-5-2 (Table 1). This confirms that coffee is not a good host of M. mayaguensis from guava. This species is one of the main coffee pests in Cuba (Rodriguez et al., 1995), indicating that the isolate from guava is probably different from the Cuban isolate from coffee.

M. exigua reproduced very well on 'Catuaí Vermelho' (RF=98.2), but no galls and a low reproduction were observed on the progeny H 419-5-4-5-2 (RF=0.9). Different levels of resistance to M. exigua have been found on progenies derived from crossing C. arabica and C. canephora (Ribeiro et al., 2001). Forty–two progenies of Timor Hybrid derived from crossing C. arabica and C. canephora were resistant to M. exigua. In some of them, eggs were not produced, showing the same behavior as the parent C. canephora, and were also resistant to coffee rust (Hemileia vastatrix) (Gonçalves & Pereira, 1998). Resistance to M. exigua is controlled by a simply inherited major gene, denominated the Mex-1 locus in the 'IAPAR 59' and other Timor Hybrid introgressed lines with, possibly, incomplete dominance (Noir et al., 2003). Mex-1 is the first identified gene of nematode resistance in coffee, and it represents an important starting point to enhance backcross breeding programs and thus to perform early marker–assisted selection of resistant seedlings (Campos & Vilain, 2005). No information about resistant gene was available for the progeny H 419-5-4-5-2.

The other four species assessed, M. incognita, M. paranaensis, M. arabicida and M. izalcoensis, reproduced very well in both genotypes (Table 1). Hernandez et al. (2004) demonstrated that M. incognita from Brazil did not multiply on Sarchimor or genotype from Ethiopia ('ET 28').M. paranaensis from Guatemala multiplied at relatively low rates on Sarchimor, but did not multiply on genotypes ET15 and ET28. M. arabicida did not multiply at all on genotype ET15. However, resistance in these Ethiopian genotypes is apparently not effective against some isolates of M. exigua from Costa Rica and M. izalcoensis (Hernandez et al., 2004). Different resistance genes are involved according to the Meloidogyne species considered. This explains why some Sarchimor accessions are resistant to M. exigua and other Ethiopian accessions to M. paranaensis (Hernandez et al., 2004).

Other studies have pointed out the large diversity of Meloidogyne species that are able to parasitize coffee in Brazil and Central America. These populations have a high genetic diversity (Carneiro et al, 2004) and in terms of pathogenicity (Hernandez et al., 2004), which increases the need for accurate characterization of species or types correlating with pathogenicity studies on different coffee genotypes.

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS

The first and last authors gratefully acknowledge a grant from Conselho Nacional de Desenvolvimento Científico e Tecnológico - CNPq.

Received 16 July 2007

Accepted 26 June 2008

Author for correspondence: Regina M.D.G. Carneiro, e-mail: [e-mail]

TPP 7036

Associate Editor: Ricardo Moreira de Souza

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Publication Dates

• Publication in this collection
  28 Oct 2008
• Date of issue
  Aug 2008

History

• Accepted
  26 June 2008
• Received
  16 July 2007