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Summary: Enset (Ensete ventricosum) is an important starch staple crop, cultivated primarily in south and southwestern Ethiopia. Enset is the main crop of a sustainable indigenous African system that ensures food security in a country that is food deficient. Related to the banana family, enset is similarly affected by plant-parasitic nematodes. Plant-parasitic nematodes impose a huge constraint on agriculture. The distribution, population density and incidence of plant-parasitic nematodes of enset was determined during August 2018. A total of 308 fields were sampled from major enset-growing zones of Ethiopia. Eleven plant-parasitic nematode taxa were identified, with Pratylenchus (lesion nematode) being the most prominent genus present with a prominence value of 1460. It was present in each sample, with a highest mean population density per growing zone of 16 050 (10 g root)−1, although densities as high as 25 000 were observed in fields at higher altitudes in Guraghe (2200-3000 m a.s.l.). This lesion nematode is found in abundance in the cooler mountainous regions. Visible damage on the roots and corms was manifested as dark purple lesions. Using a combination of morphometric and molecular data, all populations were identified as P. goodeyi and similar to populations from Kenya, Uganda and Spain (Tenerife). Differences in population densities amongst cultivars indicate possible resistance of enset to P. goodeyi. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Protein variability of 27 populations of cyst nematodes belonging to the Heterodera avenae complex were studied using isoelectric focusing (IEF). Sixteen Norwegian populations were compared with standard populations of H. avenae, H. filipjevi, H. mani and H. arenaria. Norwegian populations were also tested for pathotype on selected cereal cultivars. Based on differences in the protein banding pattern, eight clusters of populations could be recognised. Nine Norwegian populations grouped together with H. avenae standards. The three Swedish populations: Knislinge, Ringsåsen and Våxtorp, previously classified as H. avenae, differed from this species, from H. filipjevi and from each other. Four Norwegian populations clustered together with the Våxtorp population. Two Norwegian populations formed a cluster together with a Swedish H. filipjevi standard. The Norwegian population Brekstad differed from all other populations, as did the standards of H. mani and H. arenaria. Pathotype testing of the Norwegian populations identified ten populations as H. avenae pathotype Ha 11, while three were close to pathotype Ha 12. The two H. filipjevi populations were close to the Swedish pathotype west. The Brekstad population differed from all others also in host spectrum. This population and the Våxtorp-group demonstrate a complexity within the Norwegian cereal cyst nematodes that merits further investigation. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]