Isolation and identification of nematophagous bacteria in soil

• Main Author: Mooi, Wei Chien
• Format: Undergraduate Final Project Report
• Published: 2013
• Online Access: http://discol.umk.edu.my/id/eprint/5762/

This study was done to investigated the type of soil bacteria that can control plant parasitic nematode. There are many type of plant parasitic nematode that damages the plant. It displays a wide variety of life cycles and life histories. Nematodes are caused around 14% of all worldwide plant losses, which is almost $100 billion dollars annually. Therefore, nematode is necessary to be control. Traditionally, nematode is controlled by using nematicide which is a chemical treatment. However, it can cause negative effect to the environment and also human in long term. Therefore, present of various type of biological control of nematode such as crop rotation and microorganism are examined. In this experiment, Rhizobacteria are tested. Root knotted nematode (Meloidogyne sp.) is used in this experiment. The source of microorganism is come from soil. 6 colonies of rhizobacteria are selected randomly in nutrient agar plate. Free cell filtrated bacteria is tested with 15-20 nematodes. The nematode percent of mortality (active or passive) was recorded in 0 hours, 12 hours, 24 hours, 36 hours and 48 hours under a stereo microscope. Nematodes (juveniles) were considered dead when they did not move on probing with a bamboo stick. The percentage of dead juvenile is counted. The nematophagous bacteria culture is analysed by biochemical test to identify the genus of bacteria Pseudomonas sp. is the bacteria found in this experiment. For further study, potential nematophagous bacteria need to test in field test. This is because the idea result from the lab test normally will different with field test due to various factors such as temperature, pH, and etc.