Sorghum Diseases in India

Similarly, several species of Heterodera, Rotylenchulus,
and Senegalonema are known to
parasitize sorghum (Table 1) but data are lacking
on actual pathogenicity.
Migratory Endoparasites
Within the genus Pratylenchus, seven species
have been reported as parasites of sorghum (Table
1). Pratylenchus brachyurus (Sharma and
Medeiros 1982), P. crenatus (Motalaote et al.
1987), P. hexincisus, P. neglectus, and P. scribneri
(Dickerson et al. 1978) are reportedly unable to
parasitize sorghum. Thus, for R brachyurus and
P. hexincisus there is some confusion because sorghum
has been reported both as host and nonhost.
Although Motalaote et al. (1987) did not
detect significant variation among 10 sorghum
cultivars with respect to parasitism by P. brachyurus,
it is possible that variation among
sorghum genotypes and/or Pratylenchus
populations could explain the apparent discrepancies
regarding parasitism of sorghum by some
species.
Pathogenicity of two species of Pratylenchus
has been documented for sorghum. Norton
(1958) reported that initial populations of 65
P. hexincisus individuals L -1 of soil suppressed
sorghum dry weight accumulation by 20% in
Table 1. Genera and species of nematodes known to be parasitic or pathogenic on Sorghum bicolor. 1
Nematode Parasitism Pathogenicity Citations/References
Sedentary endoprasites
Meloidogyne incognita + + Birchfield (1983), Orr (1967)
M. javanica + Sharma and Medeiros (1982)
M. naasi + Coetzee and Botha (1965)
Heterodera gamiensis + Merny and Netscher (1976)
H. sorghi + Jain et al. (1982)
Rotylenchulus borealis + Vovlas and Inserra (1982)
R. parvus + Page et al (1985)
Senegalonema sorghi + Germani et al. (1984)
Endoparasites
Pratylenchus brachyurus + - Motalaote et al. (1987), Endo (1959)
P.coffeae + Motalaote et al. (1987)
R crenatus
-
P.hexincisus + + Norton (1958)
P. penetrans + Marks and Townsend (1972)
R sudanensis + Yassin (1973)
P.thornei + O'Brien (1982)
P.zeae + + Motalaote et al. (1987), Endo (1959)
Ectoparasites
Criconemella sphaerocephal + + Kinlock (1987)
Quinisulcius acutus + + Cuarezam-Teran and Trevathan
(1985)
Trichodorus allius + + Smolik (1977)
Longidorus africanus + + Lamberti (1969)
Tyknchorhynchus martini + + Hafez and Claflin (1982)
T.nudus + + Smolik (1977)
1. (+) Parasitism indicates reproduction on sorghum while (+) Pathogenicity indicates that growth or yield
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suppression due to parasitism has been observed.