SCREENING OF BANANA GERMPLASM FOR RESISTANCE AND TOLERANCE TO NEMATODE

Banana is the most popular fruit in terms of per capita consumption and world's most widely traded fruit.Worldwide,nematodes are considered as the most important pest of bananas and plantains.The burrowing nematode,root-lesion nematode and root-knot nematode are economically important.The cost of nematode management using nematicides is quite prohibitive.Availability of nematode resistant or tolerant Musa cultivars could contribute to improve the productivity at a lesser cost with no pollution.More concerted efforts to identify nematode resistant or tolerant Musa genotypes is needed.The study aims at identifying nematode resistant diploid and triploid accessions,investigating histological and biochemical basis of resistance and identification of RAPD markers associated with the nematode resistance.The findings have been published in a book form entitled “Screening of Banana Germplasm for resistance and tolerance to nematodes”.The key findings indicated that some of the accessions showed multiple resistance to nematodes.This book would be much useful to horticulturists,pathologists,biotechnologists,studen ts involved in biotic stress research,banana growers