The Department of Nematology's weekly NEMA 250 seminar series is presented this week by:

Patricia (Patty) Timper, Ph.D. Professor in Nematology, University of Georgia, Tifton, GA

Seminar Title: “Conserving Natural Suppression of Root-Knot Nematodes"

Brief Biography: Dr. Patricia Timper graduated with a B.S., M.S., and Ph.D. in Entomology from the University of California, Davis. Her graduate research was on entomopathogenic nematodes. She switched to working on plant-parasitic nematodes when she accepted a postdoc with the USDA ARS at Cornell University, followed by a second postdoc at the University of Arkansas. Dr. Timper worked for 25 years with the USDA ARS in Tifton, Georgia, and retired in Sept. 2022. Over her career, she has worked in several areas of nematode management, including host-plant resistance, crop rotation, and winter cover crops; however, she has had a special interest in the biological control of nematodes since her early postdoc research.

Seminar Summary: Root-knot nematodes (RKN; Meloidogyne spp.) are major crop pests around the world. Most soils contain one or more organisms which can consume or inhibit these nematodes. In some cases, these organisms can have a measurable level of suppression on RKN. One of the goals of my research for the last 25 years has been to determine the influence of different crop production practices on suppression of RKN by resident soil organisms. I will present studies on the effect of crop rotation and fumigation on the bacterium Pasteuria penetrans, which is a host-specific parasite of RKN, and on the effect of fumigation on predatory nematodes, which feed on a variety of nematodes, including RKN. Fumigation had only a minor impact on the abundance of P. penetrans but dramatically reduced the abundance of predatory nematodes and their ability to reduce RKN survival. Rotations with non-host crops of RKN substantially reduced the abundance of P. penetrans.