Indian Journal of Nematology

Advances in tissue culture technology, successfully applied to nematode culturing, could help to overcome serious limitations to culturing species of important genera as Meloidogyne spp. on callus. The present investigation was undertaken to see the effect of surface disinfectants on nematode sterilization and survival of juveniles. The study of nematode reproduction and multiplication was also undertaken. Treatments with high doses of NaOCl and HgCl₂ were found to be toxic to the nematode juveniles with no contamination at all. The best results were obtained with the combined treatment of NaOCl (5%) and HgCl2 (0.1%), where number of active juveniles were also sufficient without any contamination. For culturing nematodes (i) Seedling (ii) Normal root callus and (iii) Rhizogenic normal callus were cultured on MS-medium. They were inoculated with surface sterilized egg masses of Meloidogyne incognita at the rate of ten egg masses per explant. The eggs hatched on the surface of explant and juvenile passed through the developmental stages. It was found that second, third and fourth stage juvenile were developed in the callus along with few females and many males. Nematodes reproduced well and regenerated roots showed presence of more males in comparison to females.