Twenty years have elapsed since that last book was published dedicated to biological control of nematodes and to this day a robust commercially successful biological control agent for plant parasitic nematodes is not routinely used. Soil supressive to plant nematodes is a well established phenomenon and yet we clearly do not understand the ecology of it sufficiently well to manipulated it in a way that we can predicatively control these important plant pests. During the last 20 years there has also been a revolution in molecular biology and we now have many techniques available to us that were only just beginning to be developed when his original book was published.

Traditional biological control scientists do not really have a clear understanding of what molecular biology can deliver and molecular biologists do not really understand the problems confronting biological control scientists. It has become increasingly apparent that each of these groups needed to walk around in each others shoes for a while, so to speak, and try and get an understanding of where each other were coming from and what may or may not be possible. The current volume focuses on a number of areas that are of importance in the area of plant parasitic nematode soil ecology, based on the multitrophic interactions between plant, nematodes and natural enemies, and also host parasite interactions, plant - nematode, nematode - natural enemy, that can now be dissected at the molecular level. By bringing all these areas together within the covers of a single book we hoped to build cohesion between these disciplines and help understand what might be possible from the point of view of biological control.

Zusammenfassung

The offered volume intends to review the biological control theme of phytonematodes from several prospects: ecological; applicative as well as commercial state of the art; understanding the mode-of-action of various biocontrol systems; interaction between the plant host, nematodes' surface and microorganism's; candidates for biocontrol; extrapolation of the wide knowledge existed in another systems for understanding biocontrol processes: C. elegans as a model and lessons from other natural systems; and exploiting advanced genomic tools to promote understanding biocontrol processes and thereafter improve specific biological control agents. ****

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Inhalt

Chapter 1: Biological Control of Plant-Parasitic Nematodes: An Ecological Perspective, A Review of Progress and Opportunities For Further Research.- Chapter 2: Microbial Ecology and Nematode Control in Natural Ecosystems.- Chapter 3: Microbial Interactions with Caenorhabditis elegans: Lessons from a Model Organism.- Chapter 4: Exploiting Genomics to Understand the Interactions Between Root-knot Nematodes and Pasteuria penetrans.- Chapter 5: Plant Nematode Surfaces.- Chapter 6: Molecular Mechanisms of the Interaction Between Nematode-Trapping Fungi and Nematodes: Lessons from Genomics.- Chapter 7: Ecology of Pochonia chlamydosporia in the Rhizosphere at the Population, Whole Organism and Molecular Scales.- Chapter 8: Trichoderma as a Biological Control Agent.- Chapter 9: New Insights on the Mode of Action of Fungal Pathogens of Invertebrates for Improving their Biocontrol Performance.- Chapter 10: Endophytes Fungi.- Chapter 11: Utilization of Biological Control for Managing Plant-Parasitic Nematodes.- Chapter 12: Root Patho-Systems Nematology and Biological Control.