Evaluation of different tissue cultures of chilli, Capsicum annuum for in vitro establishment of Meloidogyne incognita

Excised root segments, callus, roots induced from callus and root segments and axenic plant cultures of chilli, Capsicum annuum were evaluated for their response to Meloidogyne incognita. Second-stage juveniles of M. incognita were surface sterilized by exposing them to 0.01% strepto-penecillin sulphate for an hour. The results of larval inoculations revealed that none of the larvae were able to infect excised root segments. In callus cultures only 2%, in callus induced roots 33%, and in root to root cultures 17% larvae were able to establish and develop into next stages. Axenic plant cultures showed maximum susceptibility to the nematode with 44% larval infection. Irrespective of varying degrees of infection, the development of larvae was normal in all the tissues. Culturing nematode on callus induced roots, root-to-root cultures and axenic plant cultures was not observed to have any adverse effect on its fecundity.