Heterodera cruciferae

Heterodera cruciferae	Contents	Rev 10/17/2023
Cabbage 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 cruciferae Franklin, 1945

A member of the Goettigiana group of Heterodera spp.

Cabbage Cyst Nematode

Synonyms: Heterodera (Heterodera) cruciferae Franklin, 1945 (Skarbilovich, 1959)

Etymology: named for an earlier name for the main family of plant hosts, the Brassicaceae (formerly Cruciferae).

Morphology and Anatomy:

General Characteristics of the Goettingiana Group of Heterodera

Cysts lemon-shaped
Ambifenestrate
Bullae absent or present
Underbridge weak
Vulval slit long
J2 incisures 4
Dicotyledonous hosts

(Handoo and Subbotin, 2018; Subbotin et al., 2010, Subbotin et al. 2023)

		Female: Body swollen, plump, almost spherical, lemon shape with projecting neck containing the esophagus and part of the esophageal glands. Median esophageal bulb large, sub-spherical with prominent valve. Prominent excretory pore at base of neck, at level of center of median bulb valve. Females are white throughout development, turning brown at death. A large gelatinous matrix (egg sac), often almost as large as the female body and containing many eggs, is exuded through the vulva (Jones, 1950) and is probably secreted by uterine cells (Mackintosh, 1960). Cyst: Broad, almost spherical to lemon shape. C yst wall tough and dark brown, bearing irregular punctations, a reticulate pattern of ridges and a subcrystalline layer, the latter lost in old cysts. Cyst is ambifenestrate with very low semifenestral arches separated by a narrow vulval bridge. In mature cysts, the semifenestrae are unobstructed, but in newly formed cysts, the body wall may still be intact. A narrow underbridge, formed from lateral bands of supporting tissue, connects the proximal end of the vagina with the vulval cone wall; the underbridge may be lost from older cysts (absent in 25% of specimens examined by Mulvey, 1972). Abullate.

Males: Vermiform, with rounded tail less than 1/5 body width long. Body adopting a curved position after heat relaxation, the posterior part often twisted 90 degrees. Cuticle annulated, 4 incisures in lateral field, outer bands areolated. Male lip region slightly offset, with 5-6 lip annules. Heavily sclerotized, head skeleton. Well developed stylet, cone 40% of total length; large knobs swept backwards. Median esophageal bulb a slender ellipse with prominent valve. Esophageal gland extending posteriorly beyond excretory pore to about 15% of body length. Subventral section longer.		Second-stage juvenile: Vermiform, folded three times within egg. Head offset with 3-4 head annules. Stylet robust, cone about 40% of total length, basal knobs massive with anterior face flat to concave. Esophageal gland extending posteriorly to about 33% of body length. Tail tapering uniformly to a finely rounded terminus, with terminal hyaline zone about 50% tail length and equal to stylet length. Hyaline portion of tail often seen to contain refractive inclusions. Phasmid 33% of tail length behind anus.
Reported median body size for this species (Length mm; width micrometers; weight micrograms) - Click:		Male with single testis, not reflexed. Spicules tips bidentate with two pores below spicule tip. Gubernaculum a simple rod. Phasmids one body-width anterior to cloaca.

Distribution:

California, South Australia; widely distributed in Europe and also worldwide..

Economic Importance:

C-rated pest in California Nematode Pest Rating System.

Feeding:

Feeding site establishment and development typical of genus.

Hosts of the Goettingiana group of Heterodera spp. are usually dicotyledonous plants. All species and varieties of Brassica and other Brassicaceae. Sugarbeet (Beta vulgaris) is a non-host or very poor host.

For an extensive host range list for this species, click

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Life Cycle:

Ecophysiological Parameters:

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

Development and basic biology are similar to those of other cyst-nematodes.

Heterodera cruciferae is an amphimictic, sedentary endoparasite. After emerging from the egg, the J2s penetrate roots, establish a permanent feeding site in the root stele, become sedentary and swell. Adult females are swollen, and the posterior portions of their bodies protrude from the root. Males undergo a matemorphosis in the 4th juvenile stage and become vermiform adults which migrate into the soil and inseminate the protruding females. The female dies and becomes a cyst, each cyst containing up to 500-600 embryonated eggs which can be extremely long lived in the soil, surviving decades of adverse conditions (Subbotin et al., 2010).

On cabbage grown in South Wales, two complete generations occur between April and early September, but second-stage juveniles invading in September developed only as far as immature females by December (Lewis, 1971). Second-stage juveniles did not invade roots at temperatures below 4 C, but nematodes in the roots continued to develop slowly throughout the winter.

H. cruciferae is unusual among temperate cyst-nematode species in parasitizing winter-grown crops, and the number of generations produced on a crop depends on the growing period and sowing date, with a maximum of three generations on late cultivars of Brussels sprouts grown in northwest Europe.

H. cruciferae is amphimictic; there is no information about environmental effects on sex ratio. The bivalent chromosome number is 9 as in other amphimictic cyst-nematodes (Sheperd, 1965).

Mean number of eggs per cyst is 118. The gelatinous matrix, lost from many old cysts, contains from one to about 200 eggs and, in some instances, trapped males (Franklin, 1945).

Hatching of H. cruciferae eggs can be stimulated by exposure to root diffusates from Brassica spp., but not by the diffusates of other cruciferous hosts (Winslow, 1953; Shepherd, 1965).

Males do not feed.

[Ref: CIH Descriptions of Plant-parasitic Nematodes, Set 6, No. 90 (1972)]; Chitambar et al., (2018); Scheck (2023).

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Damage:

Heterodera cruciferae is not a major pest, but it can cause significant damage to brussels sprouts in California (Lear et al., 1965; Lear, 1972).

In heavily infested soils, seedling emergence may be delayed, Seedlings infested with cyst nematodes may be predisposed to secondary infection by soilborne fungi. Infestations of cabbage cyst nematode may be localized or spread over an entire field. This nematode can also severely damage cole crops in any type of soil (Westerdahl and Ploeg, 2018).

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Management:

Crop rotation is useful, since this nematode species has a limited host range.

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

Use of nematicides (1,3-Dichloropropene (1,3-D) at 30 gal/acre) is effective for controlling damage to brussels sprouts in California (Lear, 1971); Stirling & Wicks (1975) used similar amounts in Australia to increase yields of cabbage.

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References:

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.

CIH Descriptions of Plant-parasitic Nematodes, Set 6, No. 90 (1972)]

Lear, B., Sciaroni, R.H., Johnson, D.E. and Miyogawa, S.T., 1965, Reponse of Brussels sprouts to soil fumigation for control of cabbage root nematode, Heterodera cruciferae, PI. Dis. Reptr., 49: 903.

Scheck, H.J. 2023. California Pest Rating Proposal for Heterodera cruciferae Franklin, 1945. California Department of Food and Agriculture, Sacramento.

Stirling, G.R. and Wicks, T.J. 1975. Heteroder cruciferae on cabbages in South Australia and its chemical control. Plant Disease Reporter 59: 43-45.

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.

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. 2023. DNA barcoding, phylogeny and phylogeography of the cyst nematode species of the Schachtii group from the genus Heterodera (Tylenchida: Heteroderidae). Nematology (in press).

Westerdahl. B.B., and Ploeg, A.T. 2018. Agriculture: Cole Crops Pest Management Guidelines Nematodes. Cabbage cyst nematode: Heterodera cruciferae, Root-knot nematodes: Meloidogyne arenaria, Meloidogyne hapla, Meloidogyne incognita, Meloidogyne javanica. Sugarbeet cyst nematode: Heterodera schachtii UC IPM Pest Management Guidelines: Cole Crops UC ANR Publication 3442