In several regions of the country, including the São Francisco Valley, Meloidogyne enterolobii has caused significant losses in the production of guava, reflecting negatively on life quality of farmers in the region. To date, there is no effective control method, nematicides have been evaluated experimentally and have not been efficient in their control and there are no products registered with the Ministry of Agriculture, Livestock and Supply for use in guava. Therefore, there is a critical need for basic research on this area and the prospection of proteins related to resistance to M. enterolobii in nematode resistant species may be an alternative for the development of control measures. For this purpose, biological assays of toxicity were performed to analyze the effect of peanut protein extracts on the development, infective capacity and activity of proteolytic enzymes of M. enterolobii for the identification of proteins with potential to control this pest. Results showed that total protein extracts from peanut root samples inoculated with M. enterolobii has no effect on the three characteristics evaluated. Thus, similar studies with other species resistant to the pathogen are needed to identify proteins with potential to control M. enterolobii.
Arachis hypogaea; root-knot nematode; defense proteins
