Abstract:

In order to investigate the occurrence of root knot nematode disease of sweet potato in Guangdong Province, routine method was used for dissection of sweet potato root-knot nematodes, then the morphological and molecular identification of the nematodes were carried out. Root knot nematodes were isolated from the sweet potato pieces with obvious root knots happened in Lufeng and Haifeng in east Guangdong and Suixi, Wuchuan, Lianjiang and Leizhou in west Guangdong. The morphological characters of the 2nd larvae, female adults, and perineal pattern characteristics were observed, and the root knot nematode identification primers were used to obtain a band about 750 bp. The study indicates that Meloidogyne enterolobii causes the damage of sweet potato pieces in Guangdong Province, and the increasing damage of this disease year by year has become a potential threat to the sweet potato industry.

Key words: Guangdong Province, sweet potato, Meloidogyne enterolobii, damage