This book provides the most comprehensive and up-to-date review of research on vegetable plants associated with root-galls disease caused by root-knot nematodes (RKNs), Meloidogyne spp. Vegetables retain a key position in cultural cuisines and their consumption worldwide due to rich sources of micronutrients, including vitamins, minerals and antioxidants, but root galls disease of these crops caused by RKNs steals both quantity and quality from production. The field of plant nematology has experienced exponential growth over the past decade, and these RKNs are now known as widely damaging obligate plant parasites of vegetable plants. Advances are being made in understanding their biology, parasitism in the root system, giant cell development, root gall formation, chemical signalling, root-knot disease complexes, and management systems. This compilation provides an invaluable resource for studying root-galls disease of vegetable plants to those readers associated with plant nematology, plant pathology, plant protection, and agricultural science, including researchers, teachers, advanced undergraduates and graduate students, and even agricultural extension agents and farmers.
Dr. Faheem Ahmad graduated from the Aligarh Muslim University, Aligarh. Earlier, he worked as a postdoctoral fellow at Ehime University, Japan; North-West University, South Africa and National Sun Yat-Sen University, Taiwan. He is the senior assistant professor and principal investigator of UGC-BSR Start-Up Grant at the Department of Botany, Aligarh Muslim University. His research interests include plant-microbe interaction, biological control of plant-parasitic nematodes, and plant disease studies of economic crops. He has more than 50 peer-reviewed research publications in prestigious national and international journals and has delivered several scientific talks as oral and poster presentations in many scientific meetings. Dr. Faheem Ahmad is the associate editor of Springer. He is also an active life member of several professional societies, including the Nematological Society of India, the Indian Phytopathological Society, the Indian Science Congress Association, and Bose Science Society.
Dr. Gloria Nombela Blázquez is a senior scientist at the CSIC and Head of the Research Group "Interactions of Plants with Insects and Plant-parasites in Agroecosystems" in the Institute of Agricultural Sciences (ICA-CSIC) at Madrid, Spain. She has also collaborated as an expert advisor of CSIC for the Delegated Intervention of the Spanish Ministry of Finance in the Ministry of Agriculture, for the reception of scientific assignments on plant protection issues. Her experience is contrasted after a long career in the fields of entomology and nematology, leading research projects and publishing a number of scientific contributions. Among her research lines are the study of plant resistance and susceptibility to plant nematodes and insect pests, analysis of gene expression in compatible and incompatible host/parasite interactions, and the biotic and abiotic factors that affect the impact of pests and plant diseases. Dr. Nombela develops a wide activity through the tutoring of PhD theses, national and foreign students hosted in her laboratory for end-of-degree projects, Master's thesis, Erasmus grants, and undergraduate internships. Also outstanding are her regular contributions to research management as an evaluator in tribunals for scientific and technical staff positions, research projects, and scientific articles for prestigious national and international journals. She is currently co-editor of the topic "Integrated Pest Management of Crops," which include five open-access journals in prestigious editorial group.
