Abstract:

Morphological and ITS PCR-RFLP methods were used to identify East Asian and European types of Bursaphelenchus mucronatus isolated in Ningbo, China from packaging wood imported from different countries. Five traditional restriction endonucleases: Rsa I, Hae Ⅲ, Msp I, Hinf I and Alu I were applied to digest the PCR products of ITS region from single nematode of different isolates. It is first reported that there are 3 different patterns after Rsa I digestion, which may be caused from DNA sequence heterogeneity in ITS region. ITS-RFLP method is an efficient assistant method for Bursaphelenchus identification, and can be used for analyzing intraspecific different geographic types. Morphological characters of B. mucronatus compared with similar species, such as B. xylophilus (including "R" and "M" forms), B. doui and B. fraudulentus, were also discussed.

Key words: Bursaphelenchus mucronatus, identification, ITS PCR-RFLP, heterogeneity