Monoxenic Culture of Banana-Parasitic Nematodes on Musa acuminata cv. Poyo shoots.

Among nematodes parasitizing bananas throughout the world, Radopholus similis and Helicotylenchus multicinctus are the most widespread and damaging species. Besides these two nematodes, Hoplolaimus pararobustus is encountered frequently in Ivory Coast and has been increasing in banana growing areas for the past 25 years (6,10). In vitro culture systems could facilitate screening for resistance and rearing of large numbers of monoxenic nematodes for experiments. The most common techniques used to rear R. similis monoxenically involve callus tissues, usually carrot (13). Root callus from okra, grapefruit, and alfalfa (12) and leaf callus from citrus (9) also have been utilized. On the other hand, the burrowing nematode has been mass produced on differentiated tissues such as excised okra roots (7). Radopholus similis was cultured on citrus roots produced from leaves (9), on citrus seedlings growing in sandy soil irrigated with nutrient solution (5), and on citrus roots growing in an agar medium (8). Brown and Vessey (2) demonstrated that R. similis thrives on banana fruit callus. Helicotylenchus multicinctus, however, failed to survive on the same callus. There is no