Novel Nematode Management Strategies

Plant-parasitic nematodes are one of the major pests of agricultural crops in the country. Nematode control is essentially prevention; because once a plant is parasitized it is impossible to kill the nematode without also destroying the host. Insecticides/nematicides and fumigants have been used to control their population but the dosage and economic cost is very high to the farmer apart from serious detrimental effects on environment and human health. Crop resistance is the best alternative to manage nematode damage to plants but natural resistance sources are limited. Recombinant DNA technology allows to insert resistance genes into the plant genomes of related and unrelated crops. The understanding of nematode plant interactions using the tools of comparative and functional genomics has provided avenues for engineering specific and broad resistance against these ubiquitous pests. Engineering resistance by transforming plants with proteinase inhibitors, lectins, toxic proteins and dsRNA targeted against the plant parasitic nematodes are some new management strategies discussed in this review.