Abstract

Solanum melongena is the sixth most important vegetable worldwide. In recent years, eggplant production has been increasing. Therefore, study about plant diseases in this plant is important. One of the most important diseases in eggplant is plant-parasitic nematodes. Therefore, this molecular study was conducted in 2021 at the University of Limpopo to identify the plant-parasitic nematodes identified from South African soil causing yield loss in eggplant. The recovered nematode was extracted using the tray method, and then its DNA was extracted using the Chelex method. Afterward, 28S rDNA was amplified using specific primers to identify the nematode. The Nblast analysis based on the large subunit ribosomal DNA showed 99% similarity with a population of Hemicycliophora typica (KF430515) from South Africa. In addition, phylogenetic analysis using the maximum likelihood method as implemented in mega x software was done. The phylogenetic analysis put the South African populations of H. typica together with other H. typica with a 100-bootstrap value. In conclusion, the results showed that 28S could detect the H. typica, and therefore the species is verified by the molecular method. Also, the ecological behavior of the H. typica in terms of the economic impact on the eggplant needs to be investigated.