PLANT PARASITIC NEMATODES IN IRAQ: OCCURRENCE AND DISTRIBUTION RECORDS

Registration of plant nematode species in new regions or on new host plant is still of interest to many plant pathologists in general and nematologists in particular. Having a database of plant nematodes registered in a particular geographical area will facilitate a lot for researchers and specialists knowing the existing species and their associated plant hosts. And this will avoid registering already registered species or vice versa. In this research, caution and accuracy were taken as much as possible to collect data on record of parasitic plant nematodes and their hosts in Iraq for a century, as from the first report in 1921 to 2020. The results of the research revealed the presence of 80 nematode species belong to 25 genera including Amplimerlinius, Anguina, Aphelenchoides, Aphelenchus, Aphelenchus, Criconemella, Criconemoides, Ditylenchus, Helicotylenchus, Hemicriconemoides, Hemicyliophora, Heterodera, Helicotylenchus, Meloidogyne, Merlinius, Nothocriconema, Paratylenchus, Pratylenchus, Paratylenchoides, Rotylenchus, Rotylenchulus renitormis, Telotylenchus, Tylenchorhynchus, Tylenchulus semipenetrans, Xiphinema recoded on different plant species and families. Root-knot nematodes were the most prevalent and widespread in all regions of Iraq on almost all plant families, followed by the Spiral nematode and Sheathoid nematodes, which were mostly, associated with fruit trees. The other plant parasitic nematodes species were distributed differently in different regions of Iraq, while the Cyst nematodes were recorded only in central and northern Iraq on a few plant families.