Application of mitochondrial DNA polymorphism to meloidogyne molecular population biology.

Recent advances in molecular biology have enabled the genotyping of individual nematodes, facilitating the analysis of genetic variability within and among plant-pathogenic nematode isolates. This review first describes representative examples of how RFLP, RAPD, AFLP, and DNA sequence analysis have been employed to describe populations of several phytonematodes, including the pinewood, burrowing, root-knot, and cyst nematodes. The second portion of this paper evaluates the utility of a size-variable mitochondrial DNA locus to examine the genetic structure of Meloidogyne isolates using two alternate methodologies, variable number tandem repeat (VNTR) and repeat associated poiymorphism (RAP) analysis. VNTR analysis has revealed genetic variation among individual nematodes, whereas RAP may provide useful markers for species and population differentiation.