From May to June 2011, during a survey of the wheat-growing areas in Meknes in the Saïs Region of Morocco, several cyst nematode populations were detected. Sampling was performed 1 month before wheat (Triticum durum) harvest, in fields showing patches of stunted plants. Plants were growing poorly, had chlorotic lower leaves, and a reduced numbers of ears. Root systems were short and had a bushy appearance because of increased secondary root production. No cysts were visible on the roots, but were found in the soil. Cysts were collected from soil on 200-μm sieves by the modified Cobb decanting and sieving method (1) and identified by morphology and internal transcribed spacer (ITS)-rDNA sequencing. All isolates were identified as Heterodera avenae except the isolate from Aïn Jemâa. From the latter, key morphological features from cysts and second-stage juveniles (J2) were determined. The cysts (n = 10) had the following characteristics: bifenestrate vulval cone, body length without neck 590 μm (551 to 632 μm), body width 393 μm (310 to 490 μm), neck length 75 μm (65 to 90 μm), fenestra length 64 μm (60 to 72 μm) and width 21 μm (18 to 25 μm), underbridge length 96 μm (85 to 115 μm), vulval slit length 8 μm (7 to 9 μm), vulva bridge width 27 μm (24 to 33 μm), and bullae absent. The J2s (n = 10) had the following characteristics: body length 445 μm (412 to 472 μm), body width 19 μm (19 to 21 μm), stylet length 24 μm (23 to 25 μm), four lateral lines, tail length 50 μm (46 to 54 μm), and hyaline terminal tail 28 μm (24 to 31 μm). Values of the morphological characters were within the range of H. latipons reported by Handoo (3). The bifenestrate cysts with a strong underbridge and no bullae and J2 with a tail length greater than 40 μm, a stylet longer than 15 μm, and four incisures in the lateral field were typical for H. latipons. To confirm the identification, molecular observations were made. DNA was extracted from three juveniles from three different cysts separately (4). The ITS-rDNA region was amplified using the primers 5′-CGT AAC AAG GTA GCT GTA G-3′ and 5′-TCC TCC GCT AAA TGA TAT G-3′ as described by Ferris et al. (2). This resulted in a 1,040-bp DNA fragment. The PCR-products were purified and sequenced (Macrogen, Inc., Seoul, Korea). All sequences obtained (GenBank Accession Nos. per cyst: JQ319035, JQ319036, and JQ319037) were compared with sequences available from the GenBank database ( www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov ), including several species of Heterodera. This comparison revealed a sequence similarity of 97 to 99% with H. latipons and 89% or lower with any other species of Heterodera. Morphological and molecular identification demonstrated that the population of cyst nematodes from a wheat field in Aïn Jemâa, Morocco was H. latipons. In the patches with poor growing plants, 65 cysts per 100 cm³ soil were found. To our knowledge, this detection represents a new record of H. latipons. Since the nematode can cause considerable damage to wheat, one of the main cereals produced in Morocco, care should be taken to prevent the spread to other regions. References: (1) K. R. Barker. Page 19 in: An Advanced Treatise on Meloidogyne. Vol II. Methodology. C. C. Carter and J. N. Sasser, eds. North Carolina State University Graphics, Raleigh, 1985. (2) V. R. Ferris et al. Fundam. Appl. Nematol. 16:177, 1993. (3) Z. A. Handoo. J. Nematol. 34:250, 2002. (4) M. Holterman et al. Mol. Biol. Evol. 23:1792, 2006.

Remote sensing technology is vital for precision agriculture, aiding in early issue detection, resource management, and environmentally friendly practices. Recent advances in remote sensing technology and data processing have propelled unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs) into valuable tools for obtaining detailed data on plant diseases with high spatial, temporal, and spectral resolution. Given the growing body of scholarly research centered on UAV-based disease detection, a comprehensive review and analysis of current studies becomes imperative to provide a panoramic view of evolving methodologies in plant disease monitoring and to strategically evaluate the potential and limitations of such strategies. This study undertakes a systematic quantitative literature review to summarize existing literature and discern current research trends in UAV-based applications for plant disease detection and monitoring. Results reveal a global disparity in research on the topic, with Asian countries being the top contributing countries (43 out of 103 papers). World regions such as Oceania and Africa exhibit comparatively lesser representation. To date, research has largely focused on diseases affecting wheat, sugar beet, potato, maize, and grapevine. Multispectral, reg-green-blue, and hyperspectral sensors were most often used to detect and identify disease symptoms, with current trends pointing to approaches integrating multiple sensors and the use of machine learning and deep learning techniques. Future research should prioritize (i) development of cost-effective and user-friendly UAVs, (ii) integration with emerging agricultural technologies, (iii) improved data acquisition and processing efficiency (iv) diverse testing scenarios, and (v) ethical considerations through proper regulations.

Soil microbial communities play a crucial role in soil fertility, sustainability, and plant health. However, intensive agriculture with increasing chemical inputs and changing environments have influenced native soil microbial communities. Approaches have been developed to study the structure, diversity, and activity of soil microbes to better understand the biology and plant-microbe interactions in soils. Unfortunately, a good understanding of soil microbial community remains a challenge due to the complexity of community composition, interactions of the soil environment, and limitations of technologies, especially related to the functionality of some taxa rarely detected using conventional techniques. Culture-based methods have been shown unable and sometimes are biased for assessing soil microbial communities. To gain further knowledge, culture-independent methods relying on direct analysis of nucleic acids, proteins, and lipids are worth exploring. In recent years, metagenomics, metaproteomics, metatranscriptomics, and proteogenomics have been increasingly used in studying microbial ecology. In this review, we examined the importance of microbial community to soil quality, the mystery of rhizosphere and plant-microbe interactions, and the biodiversity and multi-trophic interactions that influence the soil structure and functionality. The impact of the cropping system and climate change on the soil microbial community was also explored. Importantly, progresses in molecular biology, especially in the development of high-throughput biotechnological tools, were extensively assessed for potential uses to decipher the diversity and dynamics of soil microbial communities, with the highlighted advantages/limitations.

Root-knot nematodes 'Meloidogyne spp' are the most destructive group of plant parasitic nematodes causeing serious losses in vegetables crops and this damages worsened when crops grown under greenhouses conditions. In this sutdy, the distribution and characterization of root-knot nematode species collected from the Souss region of Morocco where vegetables crops intensively cultivated were determined by using both morphological and molecular tools. Out of the 110 samples collected from different greenhouses 91 (81.7%) were found to be infested with root-knot nematodes. Thirty-seven populations of root-knot nematodes were morphologically identified based on perineal patterns as well as molecularlly using species-specific primers. The obtained results indicated that Meloidogyne javanica and M. incognita were identified in 86.4% and 13.5% of the total populations, respectively. The lowest incidence of root-knot nematodes (64%) was found in Toussous, whereas the highest frequencies of 100% and 90% were detected in Taddart and Biogra, respectively. As the majority of the samples have been infested with Meloidogyne species; this indicates that there is an urgent need to provide farmers with a proper control strategy.

The root-knot nematode, Meloidogyne javanica is a devastating pest affecting tomato production worldwide. Entomopathogenic nematodes (EPNs) are considered very promising biocontrol agents that could be used to effectively manage plant-parasitic nematode. The antagonistic activity of five EPN strains isolated from different fields in Morocco was evaluated against juvenile (J2s) antagonism in soil, the number of egg masses, and the galling index of M. javanica and J2s reproduction in the root. In greenhouse experiments, Steinernema feltiae strains (EL45 and SF-MOR9), Steinernema sp. (EL30), and those of Heterorhabditis bacteriophora (HB-MOR7 and EL27) were applied to the soil alongside RKN J2s. There was a significant reduction in M. javanica densities in the soil and roots by EPNs treatments when compared to the positive control. The EPNs decreased both egg masses formation and galling index by 80% compared to the positive control. The application of EPNs at a rate of 50 and 75 infective juveniles (IJs) cm⁻² gave significant control of all studied nematological parameters compared to the positive control, which confirmed the importance of the doses applied. The applied dose was significantly correlated with M. javanica parameters according to polynomial regression models. The results also showed that S. feltiae strain (EL45) significantly increased plant height and root length, while H. bacteriophora strain (HB-MOR7) only enhanced root fresh weight. Therefore, both indigenous EPN strains; EL45 and SF-MOR9 have eco-friendly biological potential against M. javanica in vegetable crops.