Disease Note
Diseases Caused by Nematodes created necrotic brown-black lesions. A mean value of 2,604 ± 820 (mean ±
First Report of the Root-Knot Nematode Meloidogyne enterolobii
Parasitizing Plantain (Musa spp. AAB) in Nigeria
E. Olajide,1,2,† Y. A. Kolombia,1 D. Amah,1 M. Couvreur,2
R. Swennen,3,4 D. Coyne,5 L. Cortada,2 and W. Bert2
1
International Institute of Tropical Agriculture (IITA), Ibadan
200001, Nigeria
2
Nematology Research Unit, Department of Biology, Ghent University,
9000 Ghent, Belgium
3
IITA, Kampala 7878, Uganda
4
Laboratory of Tropical Crop Improvement, Department of Biosystems,
KU, Leuven, Belgium
5
IITA, Ibadan 200001, Nigeria
Funding: This work has been funded by the United States Agency for
International Development (USAID) and Special Research Funds Ghent
University (BOF18/DOS/066). Plant Dis. 107:970, 2023; published
online as https://doi.org/10.1094/PDIS-06-22-1350-SC. Accepted for
publication 18 September 2022.
Plantain (Musa spp. AAB), an important staple food in Africa with West
Africa accounting for 32% of global production, is prone to numerous pests
and diseases of which plant-parasitic nematodes are a key concern. This
includes root-knot nematodes (RKN; Meloidogyne spp.), which infect the
roots, causing them to become galled, deformed, and swollen. The nematode
Meloidogyne enterolobii is considered a global threat to production of many
important agricultural crops due to its extremely virulent and aggressive
nature (Philbrick et al. 2020). In 2019, during a survey to identify the
diversity of nematodes associated with Musa spp. in Nigeria, RKN females
(n = 13) were isolated from a heavily galled root (50 to 75% galling) from a
single plantain cv. Agbagba (Musa spp. AAB) plant in Onne, Rivers State,
Nigeria (4°43908.80N, 7°10937.50E). Genomic DNA was extracted from
three females and processed individually using worm lysis buffer and pro-
teinase K (Bert et al. 2008). The females were identified as M. enterolobii
based on Nad5 mtDNA (Janssen et al. 2016), with GenBank accession nos.
ON010028, ON010027, and ON010026, and were 100% homologous to the
M. enterolobii sequences MW965454, KU372358, and KU372359. The
sampled plant did not show any specific above-ground symptoms, but
swellings were apparent on the secondary and tertiary roots, which were
associated with RKN females that were embedded in the root tissue. All the
life stages were found clustered together in the root cortex where they
†
Indicates the corresponding author.
E. Olajide; olajide.o.emmanuel@gmail.com
© 2023 The American Phytopathological Society
970 Plant Disease / Vol. 107 No. 3
SD) males, eggs, and second-stage juveniles (J2s) were extracted from 5 g of
root subsamples (n = 6) using the Hussey and Barker (1973) NaOCl method.
On average, 39 females were hand-picked from 5 g of fresh root (n = 6). Pure
cultures were established from single egg masses and maintained on RKN-
susceptible tomato plants (Solanum lycopersicum cv. Marmande). To con-
duct Koch’s postulates, 2-month-old plantlets of plantain cv. Agbagba (n = 5)
were inoculated with 8,000 J2s and eggs (initial population) of M. enterolobii
pure cultures in 8-liter pots in a screenhouse in Nigeria. Noninoculated
plantlets were included as negative controls. The nematode reproduction
factor (RF = final density/initial population) and root damage symptoms
were assessed 90 days postinoculation. All the inoculated plantlets had
similar galling symptoms and extensive necrosis as was observed in the
field, with an average RF = 25.9. No symptoms were observed on control
plants. Adult females (n = 2) removed from the roots were identified as
M. enterolobii based on Nad5 mtDNA (ON532789, ON532790), con-
firming that plantain cv. Agbagba is a host of M. enterolobii. In Nigeria,
M. enterolobii has been reported to be associated with four plant species
belonging to four plant families: Euphorbiaceae (Oyetunde et al. 2022),
Cucurbitaceae (Bello et al. 2020), Dioscoreaceae (Kolombia et al. 2016),
and Solanaceae (dos Santos et al. 2019). To our knowledge, this is the
first report of M. enterolobii on a member of the Musaceae in Nigeria and
globally the first report on plantain (Musa spp. AAB). The impact of
M. enterolobii on plantain productivity has yet to be determined, but
given the RF value obtained in the pathogenicity test, plantain is a suit-
able host. This calls for a comprehensive RKN diversity study to evaluate
the geographic spread of M. enterolobii on this important staple food crop
in West Africa.
References:
Bello, T. T., et al. 2020. Nematology 22:781.
Bert, W., et al. 2008. Mol. Phylogenet. Evol. 48:728.
dos Santos, M. F., et al. 2019. Physiol. Mol. Plant Pathol. 105:110.
Hussey, R. S., and Barker, K. R. 1973. Plant Dis. Rep. 57:1025.
Janssen, T., et al. 2016. Sci. Rep. 6:22591.
Kolombia, Y. A., et al. 2016. Plant Dis. 100:2173.
Oyetunde, A. K., et al. 2022. Plant Dis. 106:1533.
Philbrick, A. N., et al. 2020. Front. Plant Sci. 11:606395.
The author(s) declare no conflict of interest.
e-Xtra
Keywords: cultivar/resistance, disease development and spread, disease
management, epidemiology, nematodes, pathogen detection, tree fruits,
tropical plants