Skip to main content
ARS Home » Pacific West Area » Corvallis, Oregon » Horticultural Crops Disease and Pest Management Research Unit » Research » Publications at this Location » Publication #418243
Research Project: Disease Management in Small Fruit and Nursery Crops Based on Knowledge of Pathogen Diversity, Biology, and Environmental Effects

Location: Horticultural Crops Disease and Pest Management Research Unit

Title: Molecular diagnostics of the hop cyst nematode, Heterodera humuli Filipjev, 1934, using real-time PCR

Author
item SUBBOTIN, S - California Department Of Agriculture
item RAMIREZ-STRAIN, JASMIN - University Of California, Davis
item DARLING, E - Michigan State University
item NUNEZ-RODRIGUEZ, L - Oregon State University
item QUINTANILLA-TORNEL, M - Michigan State University
item Zasada, Inga

Submitted to: Nematology
Publication Type: Peer Reviewed Journal
Publication Acceptance Date: 12/2/2024
Publication Date: 1/30/2025
Citation: Subbotin, S.A., Ramirez-Strain, J., Darling, E., Nunez-Rodriguez, L., Quintanilla-Tornel, M., Zasada, I.A. 2025. Molecular diagnostics of the hop cyst nematode, Heterodera humuli Filipjev, 1934, using real-time PCR. Nematology. 27(2):181-189. https://doi.org/DOI:10.1163/15685411-bja10381.
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1163/15685411-bja10381

Interpretive Summary: The ability to identify pests of agricultural crops is important in order to deploy appropriate management strategies and limit spread. One such pest of importance to agriculture are plant-parasitic nematodes, microscope roundworms that attack the roots of plants. Research was conducted to develop a diagnostic method based up nematode DNA sequences to identify and quantify the hop cyst nematode. This method will be used by diagnostic labs to identify this nematode in soil samples.

Technical Abstract: The hop cyst nematode, Heterodera humuli is a pest of hop with the potential to substantially limit yields worldwide. To enable molecular-based diagnostics, a real-time PCR assay for the identification of H. humuli was designed. A polymorphism in the COIII gene fragment was used to design species-specific primers and a TaqMan probe. The specificity of the primer and probe set was tested against different populations of H. humuli and non-target cyst nematodes in multiplex reactions. In multiplex real-time PCR experiments with specific and universal primer and probe sets, fluorescent signals were simultaneously monitored for COIII and D3 of 28S rRNA target genes. The results of the experiments showed that the assays with species-specific primers and probe were able to detect DNA extracted from 0.0016 of a H. humuli second-stage juvenile.