First report of root-lesion nematode, Pratylenchus oleae from pistachio in Iran

Pistachio, Pistacia vera is one of the most important cash crops in Iran that is scattered in arid and semi-arid regions. During a survey of plant-parasitic nematodes of pistachio in Ardakan city in Yazd Province, a species of root-lesion nematode was isolated and identified by morphological, morphometrical, and molecular methods as Pratylenchus oleae Palomares-Rius et al., 2014. This species was isolated from several pistachio trees rhizosphere regarding to molecular analysis, D2–D3 expansion segments of 28S rRNA was amplified by PCR and sequenced. The sequence was deposited in GenBank (Accession No. MW338666). Along with the related phylogenetic analysis, placed this species in a monophyletic clade with other Pratylenchus oleae isolates, based on Bayesian inference (BI) phylogeny. A PCR reaction with the P. oleae specific primer set produced a 547 bp fragment. This is the first report of P. oleae infecting Pistachio tree in the world.