Rapid identification of Meloidogyne hapla by KASP assay

Meloidogyne hapla causes significant economic damage to many cultivated plants including especially vegetables, fruit trees and potatoes. Due to the high number of hosts of this species, it limits the variety of crops to be planted in infested areas. In order to make quarantine measures and management strategies timely against M. hapla, the species need to be identified accurately and quickly. In this study, Kompetitive Allele -Specific PCR (KASP) genotyping assays were developed to identify M. hapla. Two forward primers and one reverse primer were designed as well and performed in the KASP protocols. The designed KASP assays were able to successfully distinguish M. hapla isolates from other root -knot nematodes (RKNs) and plant -parasitic nematodes (PPNs) species. The results showed that even DNA isolated from only one juvenile of M. hapla can be sufficient for molecular identification, and the sensitivity of the assay was very high. The developed KASP assays can be used for accurate and rapid identification of M. hapla.