Influence of different initial spore concentrations of Pasteuria penetrans on the infection of root-knot nematodes over three host crop cycles

The number of egg-masses, females per plant, over all the crop cycles were compared by accepting a parallel line, logarithmic model. The number of egg-masses per plant over all the crop cycles decreased significantly (P 0.05) more in the ten females treatment as compared with control. A highly significant difference was found in total number of females per plant where ten Pasteuria penetrans infected females were originally added as compared to the control treatment. A separate line model was fitted to compare the percentage of infected females by observing twenty females per replicate, but no infected female was recorded in any of the Pasteuria treatments after the harvest of the first crop. There was a highly significant difference in endospore production in root systems of the one female and ten females treatments and increased exponentially with the number of females over all the crop cycles. Infected females (%) increased and found significantly higher in the ten females treatment. The soil bioassay after first harvest showed few juveniles encumbered with an average of 1-5 spores and the number of juveniles without spores very high.