Cultivation and domestication of highbush blueberry (Vaccinium corymbosum) alters abundance, diversity and virulence of entomopathogenic nematodes

• Entomopathogenic nematodes were more abundant in cultivated soil than in wild soil.
• Genetic variability of EPN isolates was higher in isolates from wild stands.
• Steinernema glaseri was the only species confirmed in cultivated fields.
• Virulence of EPN isolates against a root-feeder, Anomala orientalis, was variable.

We investigated the interactive effect of plant domestication and perennial cultivation on abundance, diversity and virulence of entomopathogenic nematodes (EPN) associated with highbush blueberry (Vaccinium corymbosum). The rhizospheric soil of V. corymbosum plants was sampled in coupled wild and cultivated sites within the Pinelands National Reserve, New Jersey, USA from 2011 to 2013 at three points during each year. To isolate and assess abundance of EPN communities, soil samples were baited with wax moth larvae (Galleria mellonella). A subsample of EPNs isolated from the soil was identified using molecular barcoding. The virulence of three native isolates against oriental beetle, Anomala orientalis, larvae was assessed at multiple densities of nematodes per host. A cursory assessment of EPN diversity was based on variation in molecular barcodes because many sequences could not be identified in the genomic database GenBank. The variation among barcodes suggested that diversity was higher in rhizospheric soil associated with wild plants than that of cultivated fields. Steinernema glaseri was the only EPN species able to be identified using molecular methods and was the only species isolated from the six cultivated fields with EPN presence. An interaction of environment, sampling point, and year explained significant differences in EPN abundance in 2011 and 2012 when soil samples were assessed by plant. However, in 2013, soil was assessed by field rather than plant and our results show EPN abundance was higher in cultivated than in wild sites. Soil nutrients and characteristics were also assessed in 2013. A PCA analysis of soil characteristics linked higher plant nutrients to soil from cultivated fields and higher soil moisture, organic matter, boron and lower pH to wild plant-associated soil. In this study, cultivation of domesticated V. corymbosum increases the abundance of the more virulent EPN species against the presumed host, A. orientalis but appears to eliminate genetic variability from the EPN community.