The Systematics, Morphological, and Molecular Characterization of Economically Important Plant–Parasitic Nematodes: A Themed Issue in Honor of Dr. Gary Bauchan

Dear Colleagues,

Plant–parasitic nematodes (PPN) are recognized as one of the greatest threat to crops throughout the world. Nematodes are Earth’s most numerous multicellular animals and include species that feed on bacteria, fungi, plants, insects, and animals. Nematodes alone or in combination with other soil microorganisms have been found to attack almost every part of the plant, including mostly roots, stems, leaves, fruits, and seeds. Some nematodes are beneficial, but others cause major damage. Root–knot nematodes alone cause 5% of all crop losses around the world each year. Nematodes are one of the most important pests globally and can cause up to 14% loss of food crops. In total, nematodes cause over $100 billion in global crop damage annually. To date, only a few thousand PPN species have been described. Nematode identification has traditionally relied on morphological and anatomical characters using light microscopy and in some cases scanning electron microscopy (SCN). Lately, molecular diagnosis has been combined with morphology and taxonomy to accurately identify and describe nematode species. Despite the feasibility of molecular diagnosis in conducting quick and easy identification of specimens and its ubiquitous use by researchers on a daily basis, classical taxonomy continues to use reliable and nonoverlapping morphological characters, making it still an important and reliable tool for the identification of nematode species. Most importantly, taxonomical identification allows for the establishment of a clear link between function and morphological aspects of the specimen analysis, and it is a very suitable method for quantitative evaluations, whereas a molecular evaluation would take too long and can be too costly. Still, detailed analyses of morphological and molecular data have both significantly contributed to our overall understanding of the dynamic and complex nature of plant–nematode interactions. This Special Issue on The Systematics and Morphology of Plant-Parasitic Nematodes aims to publish articles (original research manuscripts and review articles) that focus on taxonomy, morphology, and molecular methods used for identification of PPN associated with economically important agriculture, horticultural, and forestry crops.

Dr. Zafar Handoo
Dr. Mihail Kantor
Guest Editors

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• plant-parasitic nematodes
• identification
• molecular
• morphological
• SEM
• systematics
• taxonomy