Abstract

Free-living nematodes belong to the family Cephalobidae are bacterivores contribute towards soil health are a good source for the biological and genetic analysis. Zeldia punctata is a free-living bacterivores which distributed across South Africa. This species is an important in the biodiversity of the soil nematode and needs to be identified correctly. Hence, ITS rDNA is a useful tool for identification of Z. punctate. Therefore, this molecular study was conducted in 2018 at the Limpopo University to identify the free-living bacterivores nematodes from South Africa's soils using ITS rDNA marker. The recovered nematode was extracted using the tray method, and then its DNA was extracted using chelex method. The recovered nematode identified as Zeldia punctata. Afterward, ITS rDNA was amplified using specific primers to identify the nematode. The Nblast analysis based on the ITS rDNA showed South African Z. punctata has 96% similarity (DQ146427) with the American population. Phylogenetic analysis using maximum likelihood placed this species with those molecularly identified as Z. punctata in the same clade with highly supported (100) bootstrap values. In conclusion, this species is identified using ITS rDNA properly. However, using other rDNA markers such as 18S and 28S rDNA for a better understanding of Zeldia phylogeny is recommended.