First Report of Meloidogyne javanica Parasitizing Duboisia sp. in Paraná State, Brazil

Duboisia sp. is a small tree belonging to the family Solanaceae originating from the rainforest areas of the eastern coast of Australia. Dried leaves are used for the extraction of pharmaceutical alkaloids, making this a commercially viable crop. The root-knot nematode Meloidogyne incognita has been reported parasitizing Duboisia myoporoides (5); however, no information of other root-knot nematode species associated with this plant was found. Duboisia sp. is cultivated at Solana Farm, near Arapongas (23°25′08″ S, 51°25′26″ W), Parana State, Brazil. During the renovation of a production field in this municipality, galled roots were observed on plants and samples were submitted to the Nematology Laboratory at Instituto Agronomico do Parana, IAPAR, on December 2013. Plants did not exhibit any above-ground symptoms. The specimens were identified through perineal patterns and esterase phenotypes of 20 adult females extracted from dissected roots (2,3) and morphometrics of 10 second-stage juveniles extracted fr...