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Suppression of the Plant-Parasitic Nematode Heterodera schachtii by the Fungus Dactylella oviparasitica

This study examined the role of the fungi Dactylella oviparasitica and Fusarium oxysporum in the beet-cyst nematode (Heterodera schachtii) suppressiveness exhibited by a southern Californian soil. In prior research, the abundance of D. oviparasitica rRNA genes positively correlated with high levels of suppressiveness, whereas the abundance of F. oxysporum rRNA genes positively correlated with minimal to moderate levels of suppressiveness. In this report, both fungi were added to fumigation-induced nonsuppressive soil, planted with Swiss chard, and infested with H. schachtii juveniles. After two nematode generations, D. oviparasitica strain 50 reduced the population densities of H. schachtii eggs and juveniles to those in the suppressive soil and H. schachtii cysts to levels lower than in the suppressive soil. F. oxysporum did not significantly reduce H. schachtii populations. These results suggest that D. oviparasitica strain 50 plays a major role in the suppression of H. schachtii population development in this southern Californian soil.