Defence mechanism in tomato treated with Pseudomollas fluorescens Migula against Meloidogyne incognita (Kofoid and White) Chitwood Anita B.1, Rajendran G.2, Samiyappan R.3 1Horticultural Research Station, Tamil Nadu Agricultural University, Ooty-643 001, India. 2Department of Nematology, TNAU, Coimbatore. 3Department of Plant Pathology, TNAU, Coimbatore. Abstract Investigations were carried out to assess the defence mechanism in tomato treated with a talc based formulation of a plant growth promoting rhizobacterium, Pseudomonas fluorescens against the root-knot nematode, Meloidogyne incognita. Application of a talc based preparation of P. fluorescens as seed treatment at 10g/kg seed combined with soil application at 10 g/m2 reduced root-knot nematode incidence and promoted plant growth. The bacterized plants were greener with more chlorophyll content and exhibited high accumulation of phenols, lignin and proline that might have contributed to reduced nematode invasion, allowing sufficient time for the host to build up defence mechanisms to restrict the nematode infestation. Top Key words Defence mechanism, Meloidogyne incognita, Pseudomonas fluorescens. Top |