Interaction between Meloidogyne incognita with Fusarium oxysporum f. sp. lycpersici on Tomato

Tomato (Solanum lycopersicum L.) is one of the most popular vegetable crops grown in the world, next to potato. It is used as a fresh vegetable and also can be processed and canned as a paste, juice, sauce, powder or as a whole (Barone and Frusciante, 2007). The ripe fruits are good source of vitamin A, B and C which add wide varieties of colour and flavour to the food. Recently, it started gaining more medicinal value because of the antioxidant property of ascorbic acid and lycopene content (Anon, 2002). In India, it is being grown in about 4.97 lakh hectares with an annual production of 10, 260, 600 metric tonnes. India ranks as the fourth country in the world in tomato production after China, United States and Turkey. Area under tomato cultivation in India is about 7.3 per cent of the total cropped land with 18227 million tonnes production (Anon., 2014). A number of economically important diseases of tomato caused by fungi are transmitted by seed or transplants. Tomatoes are parasitized by a number of pathogens, including Fusarim oxysporium f.sp. lycopersici (Sacc. W.C. Snyder et al., 2003) the causal agents of fusarium wilt, which is one of the most important pathogen of as tomato pathogen (Jones et al., 1982). Due to high temperature and humidity, Fusarium oxysporum International Journal of Current Microbiology and Applied Sciences ISSN: 2319-7706 Volume 6 Number 8 (2017) pp. 1770-1776 Journal homepage: http://www.ijcmas.com