Microbial Communities in Globodera pallida Females Raised in Potato Monoculture Soil

Abstract

Globodera spp. are under strict quarantine in many countries. Suppressiveness to cyst nematodes can evolve under monoculture of susceptible hosts. Females developing in potato monoculture soil infested with G. pallida populations Chavornay or Delmsen were examined for inherent microbial communities. In the greenhouse, nonheated and heat-treated (134°C for 10 min) portions of this soil were placed in root observation chambers, planted with Solanum tuberosum ‘Selma’, and inoculated with G. pallida Pa3 Chavornay. At harvest in Delmsen soil, cysts had fewer eggs in nonheated than heat-treated soil. In denaturing gradient gel electrophoresis analysis, bacterial and fungal fingerprints were characterized by a high variability between replicates; nonheated soils displayed more dominant bands than heated soils, indicating more bacterial and fungal populations. In amplicon pyrosequencing, females from nonheated portions frequently contained internal transcribed spacer sequences of the fungus Malassezia. Specific for the Chavornay and Delmsen population, ribosomal sequences of the bacteria Burkolderia and Ralstonia were abundant on eggs. In this first report of microbial communities in G. pallida raised in potato monoculture, candidate microorganisms perhaps associated with the health status of the eggs of G. pallida were identified. If pathologies on cyst nematodes can be ascertained, these organisms could improve the sustainability of production systems.