Resistance in Peanut Cultivars and Breeding Lines to Three Root-Knot Nematode Species

Three major species of root-knot nematode infect peanut: Meloidogyne arenaria race 1, M. hapla, and M. javanica race 3. Sources of resistance to all three nematodes are needed for developing novel peanut cultivars with broad resistance to Meloidogyne spp. Cultivars and breeding lines of peanut were evaluated for resistance to M. arenaria, M. hapla, and M. javanica in the greenhouse and in the laboratory. Twenty-six genotypes with some resistance to M. arenaria, M. javanica, or M. hapla were identified from 60 accessions based on average eggs per gram of root and gall index relative to a susceptible control. Among these, 14 genotypes were moderately to highly resistant to all three species, 5 genotypes were resistant to M. arenaria and M. javanica, 2 genotypes were resistant to M. javanica and M. hapla, 1 genotype was resistant M. arenaria alone, and 4 genotypes were resistant to M. hapla alone. Reproduction of M. arenaria on lines NR 0817, C724-19-11, and D108 was highly variable, indicating that these genotypes likely were heterogeneous for resistance. COAN, NemaTAM, C724-25-8, and the M. arenaria-resistant plants of C724-19-11 contained the dominant sequence-characterized amplified region marker (197/909) for nematode resistance. Results with the molecular markers indicate that the high resistance to M. arenaria in GP-NC WS 6 may be different from the resistance in COAN, NemaTAM, and C724-25-8. Resistance to M. arenaria was correlated with resistance to M. javanica in peanut, whereas resistance to M. hapla was not correlated with the resistance to either M. arenaria or M. javanica. The resistant selections should be valuable sources for pyramiding resistance genes to develop new cultivars with broad and durable resistance to Meloidogyne spp.