Heterodera ciceri

Heterodera ciceri	Contents	Rev 05/20/2024
Chickpea Cyst Nematode	Classification	Hosts
	Morphology and Anatomy	Life Cycle
Return to Heterodera Menu	Economic Importance	Damage
	Distribution	Management
Return to Heteroderidae Menu	Feeding	References
	Go to Nemaplex Main Menu	Go to Dictionary of Terminology

Classification:

Tylenchida
       Tylenchina
        Tylenchoidea
         Heteroderidae
          Heteroderinae

Heterodera ciceri Vovlas, Greco & di Vito, 1985

A member of the Schachtii group of Heterodera spp.

Synonyms:

Review general characteristics of the genus Heterodera.

Morphology and Anatomy:

General Characteristics of the Schachtii Group of Heterodera

Cysts lemon-shaped
Ambifenestrate
Bullae well-developed
Underbridge well-developed
vulval slit long
J2 incisures 4
Dicotyledonous hosts

(Handoo and Subbotin, 2018; Subbotin et al., 2010, Subbotin et al. 2024)

Females:

Males:

Reported median body size for this species (Length mm; width micrometers; weight micrograms) - Click:

Distribution:

Mainly reported from southwest Asia and the Middle East.

Economic Importance:

A-rated pest in California, USA (Martin, 2024)

Feeding:

Sedentary semi-endoparasite of plant roots feeding at a multinucleate syncytytium.

Hosts of the Schachtii group of Heterodera spp. are usually dicotyledonous plants.
Important hosts of H. ciceri are: Cicer arietinum, chickpea. Lathyrus sativus (grass pea), Lens culinaris (lentil), Medicago rigidula (annual medic), Medicago sativa (alfalfa), Phaseolus vulgaris (common bean), and Pisum sativum (pea) (Vovlas et al., 1985).

For an extensive host range list for this species, click

Back to Top

Life Cycle:

Under field conditions, there is only one generation of the nematode during the growing season of spring-sown chickpeas (Kaloshian et al., 1986).

Ecophysiological Parameters:

For Ecophysiological Parameters for this species, click	If species level data are not available, click for genus level parameters

Back to Top

Damage:

Heavy infestations of H. ciceri may cause small necrotic lesions on chickpea roots at sites of juvenile penetration. Fourth stage juvenile and the adults may be protruding at the center of the lesions. The more obvious symptoms on the roots are the presence of white and yellow females as they become cysts, visible at the flowering to the early podding stage of the plants, and brown cysts full of eggs on older plants.

Plants with severely infested roots are stunted, senesce earlier, and have fewer flowers and pods. The pods may be empty with no seeds produced. The severity of these symptoms is correlated with the population density of the nematode in the soil. Generally, infestations become obvious from early flowering onwards. Symptoms include characteristics of a plant with root damage and impaired water and nutrient uptake, including stunting with leaves appearing yellowishred and then turning necrotic in the older parts. In fields, poor and patchy plant growth is apparent in small, circular areas that get larger over years or with soil cultivation if the nematodes are spread (Chitambar et al., 2018).

Rhizobium nodulation is reduced on heavily infested roots Seed quality is also affected by nematode attack since the seed protein content of lentils and chickpeas can be reduced by 10 and 25%, respectively, at large nematode population densities.

This nematode survives in the soil as a cyst in the absence of host plants or during unsuitable environmental conditions.

The most significant damage documented from H. ciceri is on chickpeas in Syria, where complete crop failures have been reported. Severe symptoms have been seen sporadically on chickpeas in Jordan, Lebanon, and Turkey.

Lentils are less severely affected by this nematode (Greco et al., 1988).

Back to Top

Management:

Host Plant Resistance, Non-hosts and Crop Rotation alternatives:

For plants reported to have some level of resistance to this species, click

Back to Top

References:

Bellar, M. and Kebabeh, S., 1983. A list of diseases, injuries and parasitic weeds of lentils in Syria (survey 1979- 1980). Lens Newsletter 10: 30-33.

Chitambar, J. J., Westerdahl, B. B., and Subbotin, S. A. 2018. Plant Parasitic Nematodes in California Agriculture. In Subbotin, S., Chitambar J., (eds) Plant Parasitic Nematodes in Sustainable Agriculture of North America. Sustainability in Plant and Crop Protection. Springer, Cham

Greco, N., Di Vito, M., Reddy, M.V. and Saxena, M.C. 1984. A preliminary report of survey of plant-parasitic nematodes of leguminous crops in Syria. Nematologia Mediterranea 12: 87-93.

Greco, N., Di Vito, M., Saxena M.C., and Reddy, M.V., 1988. Effect of Heterodera ciceri on yield of chickpea and lentil and development of this nematode on chickpea in Syria. Nematologica, 34::98-114;

Handoo, Z.A., Subbotin, S.A. 2018. Taxonomy, identification and principal species. Chapter 15 in Perry, R.N. Moens, M., and Jones, J.T.(eds) Cyst Nematodes. CAB International.

Martin, H.J. 2024. California Pest Rating Proposal for Heterodera ciceri Vovlas, Greco & Di Vito, 1985, Chickpea cyst nematode. California Department of Food and Agriculture, Sacramento, California, USA.

Subbotin, S,A., Mundo-Ocampo, M., Baldwin, J.G. 2010. Systematics of Cyst Nematodes (Nematode: Heteroderinae). Nematology Monographs and Perspectives Volume 8B, D.J. Hunt and R.N. Perry (eds) Brill, Leiden, The Netherlands 512p

Subbotin, S.A., Roubtsova, T.V., Bostock, R.M., Maafi, Z.T., Chizhov, V.N., Palomares-Rius, J.E., Pablo Castillo, P. 2024. DNA barcoding, phylogeny and phylogeography of the cyst nematode species of the Schachtii group from the genus Heterodera (Tylenchida: Heteroderidae). Nematology 26:72-97

Vovlas, N., Greco, N., and DiVito, M., 1985. Heterodera ciceri sp.n. (Nematoda: Heteroderidae) on Cicer arietinum from Northern Syria. Nematologia Mediterranea, 13: 239-252.