Nematode disease complexes and their management

Abstract

The interactions between plant parasitic nematodes and plant pathogenic microbes like fungi and bacteria hold a lot of significance vis-à-vis plant health. It is a fascinating and an emerging area of research in Plant Pathology. Disease complexes impact adversely the crop yields in agricultural as well as horticultural crops. It is imperative that disease complex situations are diagnosed well and early to devise proper management measures. A new approach involving the use and exploitation of disease ‘resistance-holding’ cultivars for the management of disease complexes is highlighted in this article. Proper selection of naturally occurring potent microorganisms which can inhibit all the participating pathogens in a particular disease complex situation to harness diseases’ (due to nematode as well as fungus/bacterium) suppression (along with plant growth promotion) is emphasized. Also, the prospective role of new generation nematicides is anticipated for possible disease complex management.