Biocontrol Potential of the Vorticella sp. Isolated from Vermicompost Against Meloidogyne javanica.

Non-chemical control of root-knot nematodes (Meloidogyne spp.), the most important plant-parasitic nematodes, is the objective of many studies. In this study, the biocontrol potential of a protozoan Vorticella sp., isolated from vermicompost, against the root-knot nematode M. javanica was investigated. The effect of different vermicompost extracts (VE) with and without Vorticella sp. on M. javanica was investigated in vitro and in glasshouse experiments on tomato plants. The result showed that Vorticella sp. + VE had an inhibitory effect on egg hatching in vitro, which was reduced by 43–62%. In addition, the results of glasshouse experiments showed that Vorticella sp. + VE significantly increased the shoot weight of infected tomato plants compared to the control and reduced the reproduction factor of M. javanica by 74–91%. Vorticella sp. has inhibitory properties against root-knot nematode and its biocontrol potential was demonstrated in this study. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]