Screening and identification of nematophagous fungi and enzymatic activity assay
A total of 126 fungal strains were isolated from soil samples collected from Wuzhishan Mountain and pepper orchards in Ding'an of Hainan Province in China. By using Meloidogyne incognita cultured in vitro as target nematodes for selecting fungi against Meloidogyne, 7 strains were selected, among which the strain DF09002 had the highest nematicidal activity, with its lethal rate as high as 100%. The strain was identified as Aspergillus niger aggregate through morphological observation and rDNA-ITS sequence analyses. Enzymatic assays indicated that the strain DF09002 could produce chitinase and extracellular protease, with their activities as 0.67 and 41.63 U/mL, respectively.