Morphological and molecular characterization of pratylenchus hippeastri,a new record of root-lesion nematode associated with apple in China

During october 2012,a survey of plant-parasitic nematodes associated with apple (malus domestica borkh.) was conducted in shandong province,china. one species of root-lesion nematodes (rln) was isolated and analyzed. morphological and morphometric data were obtained using light microscopy (lm) and scanning electron microscopy (sem). after detailed examination,the species was identified as pratylenchus hippeastri. lsu d2d3 segment and its-rdna region of the species were amplified and sequenced; they showed 99.3% and 99.6% identity to that of the original population p. hippeastri,respectively. bayesian inference (bi) method was employed to reconstruct the phylogenetic relationship of p. hippeastri in china and other populations,as well as other related pratylenchus species. all sequences from populations of p. hippeastri formed a high supported clade. therefore,both morphological characters and molecular phylogenetic analyses confirmed the species identity of p. hippeastri in china,and apple tree is a new host record of the nematode.