First molecular identification of wheat seed gall nematode Anguina tritici races parasitized on wheat in Iraq

This study was conducted to identify races of wheat seed gall nematode Anguina tritici by using molecular identification for this nematode species parasitized on durum and bread wheat cultivars. Wheat seed galls of both cultivars were collected from two cities, Erbil and Duhok, from the Kurdistan Region and Iraq respectively. DNA was extracted from both nematode isolates (populations), and then PCR reactions were performed with Internal Transcribed Spacer (ITS) region using primers TW81/AB28 with 2 µl of template DNA of A. tritici for both nematode isolates on both wheat cultivars. The bands of both amplification products of PCR reactions were visualized in position about 800 bp on agarose gel, which indicates that both isolates of A. tritici belong to the same race. On the other hand, no nucleotide differences were observed between the two nematode isolations, as revealed by the sequence alignment of DNA of the internal transcribed spacer (ITS) region and phylogenetic tree, which emphasizes at the same time that both nematode isolates are of the same genetic structure or have the same identity and confirms their belonging to the same nematode race.