Effect of rice white tip nematode (Aphelenchoides besseyi) on some qualitative traits of Hashemi cultivar

Only a few plant parasitic nematodes are known to be seed born. Among them, the causal agent of white tip rice disease (Aphelenchoides besseyi Christie, 1942) is considered to be one of the most important. In this study, effect of white tip nematode on appearance traits (length and shape of grain), chemical properties (amylase content and gelatinization temperature) and cooking properties (grain elongation) were examined by implanting seedling of Oryzae sativa cv. Hashemi into potswith dimension 20 × 25 cm and inoculating nematode with the different numbers of 0, 100,300, 500 and 700 per seedling at the three to five leaf stage using plastic tubes in sheaths in acompletely randomized design with four replications in 2012 and 2013. The results indicated that with increasing the inoculation level, length, gelatinization temperature and amylose content of grain were decreased (p<1%) significantly, but gelatinization temperature was decreased insignificantly. The grain cooking quality characteristics of treatments were good with intermediate amylase content and gelatinization temperature whereas the gelatinization temperature and amylose content were decreased.