Efficacy of Purpureocillium lilacinum AUMC 10149 as biocontrol agent against root-knot nematode Meloidogyne incognita infecting tomato plant

Root-knot nematode Meloidogyne incognita is among the biotic factors which has greatly affected both the yield and the quality of the tomato crop. The egg parasitic nematode, Purpureocillium lilacinum (Pl) is considered as one of the most promising agents in controlling and overcoming this plant pathogen. The nematicidal effect of the native isolate Pl AUMC 10149 on second stage juvenile's survival and egg hatching of M. incognita at different times of exposure was tested in vitro. The obtained data showed that Pl gave a maximum percentage of J2 mortality (97.6%) and egg hatching inhibition (79.8%) after 72 hours of exposure. The potentiality of Pl as well as Bio-Nematon to control M. incognita infecting tomato was conducted using different times of application in vivo. Nine treatments with five replicates were used for such bioagents compared with the nematicide Oxamyl. Each seedling was inoculated with 1000 J2s of nematode/pot and 10 mL of Pl (1x1010 CFU/mL) or Bio-Nematon spore suspension (1x108 CFU/mL) 10mL/pot. The results indicated that the most effective treatments in reducing nematode population, number of galls and egg masses of M. incognita in plant roots was performed with treatment by Pl pre-planting and post-infection with Pl (Rf 1.9) giving a significant enhancement in plant length (64.9%), fresh weight (72.52%) and shoot dry weight (163.41%) without negatively impacting environment. Therefore, the present study confirmed that using P. lilacinum AUMC 10149 can be used as a practical supplement to environmentally friendly disease management of root-knot nematodes in Egypt.