INTERCEPTION OF MELOIDOGYNE ENTEROLOBII ON SWEETPOTATO IN LOUISIANA

In 2018, a Louisiana sweetpotato grower submitted severely deformed sweetpotato storage roots imported from North Carolina to the LSU AgCenter Nematode Advisory Service for further examination. Developing root-knot nematode females and egg masses were observed after peeling away the periderm and outer cortical cells. DNA was extracted from the mature females and used for species-level identification using polymerase chain reaction (PCR) and Sanger sequencing. PCR amplicon size and sequence data confirmed the identity as Meloidogyne enterolobii. This is the first report of M. enterolobii being intercepted on sweetpotato in Louisiana.