식물기생선충은 식물에 기생하여 식물의 생장을 저하시키거나 심할 경우 식물의 고사를 일으키는 주요 병원 체의 하나이다. 이들 선충은 수입 식물을 통해 국내로 유입될 수 있으며, 이로 인해 식물의 생장이 저하되거나 식물이 죽는 등의 실제적 피해를 야기할 수 있다. 생강은 한국의 대표 음식인 김치를 비롯한 다양한 요리와 음료, 전통약재 등에 사용되는 중요한 식약재료이며, 그 가치와 수요가 매우 높다. 최근 10년(2014-2023년) 동안 종구로 써 사용되는 재식용 생강의 수입량은 총 31,740톤이었는데, 수입 생강 원산지의 대부분은 중국으로써 최근 10년 간 수입량의 99.99%를 차지했다. 동기간 검역처분 내역은 합격 수량이 1,090건(27,637톤), 폐기 수량은 222건 (4,102톤)이었다. 폐기 처분을 받는 주용 원인을 분석해보면, 관리급 선충 검출이 139건, 종구에 흙이 부착된 경우 가 26건 등이었다. 앞으로도 농림축산검역본부는 수입 재식용 생강에 대한 실험실정밀검역을 통해 우리나라의 농업과 자연환경에 위해를 가할 수 있는 식물기생선충의 차단을 위해 최선의 노력을 다하고자 한다.

Root-lesion nematodes, Pratylenchus sp., are recognized as one of the most important plant parasitic nematodes. They infest various crop plants and cause severe root damages which lead to the yield loss of agricultural crops. There are 72 species recorded in the world, but 14 species in Korea. Soil samples were collected from chrysanthemum cultivars in various regions. Morphological and molecular diagnosis firstly recognized two species as Pratylenchus kumamotoensis and P. pseudocoffeae in Korea. Morphologically, P. kumamotoensis characterized by pharyngeal gland lobes overlapping with intestine dorsally. P. pseudocoffeae, which is similar with P. coffeae, but pharyngeal gland lobes are longer than P. coffeae. In molecular diagnosis, nucleotide sequences of D2-D3 region (700-800 bp) within 28S rDNA and ITS region including ITS1, 5.8S and ITS2 (700-1,000 bp) between 18S and 28S rDNA were determined from collected samples. NCBI database comparison of D2-D3 of P. kumamotoensis and P. pseudocoffeae were 99% similar with those of corresponding species, respectively. ITS of P. pseudocoffeae was 99% similar within species. ITS sequence of P. kumamotoensis was firstly determined in this study. Distribution of P. kumamotoensis was only reported in Japan but P. pseudocoffeae is present in Japan and USA. Here we firstly report the presence of these two species in Korea.

Recently, researches of molecular biology for the identification of root-knot nematode (RKN) species have been reported in plant quarantine. In this study, applicable and reproducible method to extract high quality genomic DNA from single nematode (Meloidogyne spp.) was developed. Also, the modified method was verified by DNA manipulation techniques such as PCR amplification and cloning. Single juvenile was floated in a drop of water and digested with proteinase K for 24 h. After that, DNA was extracted by using distilled water as extraction buffer. PCR amplification was carried out with universal primers spanning the internal transcribed spacer (ITS) region to distinguish species. When using the existing DNA detection method, quantification results showed that 42.86% of the deposited DNA was extracted. Whereas the modified DNA extraction method was increased to 100%. When PCR products test the direct sequencing using the ITS rDNA primers, it was also identified as M. javanica, M. incognita, and M. hispanica. Based on the studies conducted, the application of this modified method would be useful and efficient on plant parasitic nematode molecular assay.

The genus Pratylenchus is considered as one of the most important plant-parasitic nematodes around the world because of its broad spectrum host ranges and worldwide distribution. 72 species of root-lesion nematodes have already been described from various parts of the globe. Among all of them, only 5 species are regulated as a target species in quarantine inspection. As the importation of target items inspecting nematodes are surely increasing every year, detection rate of nematodes in quarantine also increased. However, the rate of species identification has been decreased due to lack of related information. The species belonging to genus Pratylenchus are shown very low identification rate because we have specimens and information about only 10 domestic species and 5 regulated species. In this study, we identified the species in the genus Pratylenchus and obtained related information for application in the quarantine field. Species identification was performed with extracted nematodes from plants obtained in the recent quarantine inspection. Newly identified species were 5 species including Pratylenchus crenatus, P. fallax, P. kumamotoensis, P. panamaensis and P. penetrans. The photos, measured value and morphological characters of each species are provided.