Host status of stinking passion flower and sour passion fruit to Rotylenchulus reniformis, Meloidogyne java']javanica and Pratylenchus brachyurus

Stinking passion flower (Passiflora foetida L.) is an herbaceous vine used due its medicinal properties. It could be an option to be used as a rootstock for sour passion fruit (P. edulis). This interest was especially motivated by its resistance to Fusarium oxysporum f. sp. passiflorae and F. solani, two soilborne pathogens that severely limit the sour passion fruit cultivation in Brazil. Phytonematodes are other important soil pathogens to most crops, including Passiflora species, and they often interact synergistically with pathogenic Fusariumspp. strains. However, the host sta-tus of stinking passion flower to phytonematodes was not assessed yet. Therefore, three pot experiments were carried out in order to assess the reproduction of Ro-tylenchulus reniformis, Meloidogyne javanica and Pratylenchus brachyurus on stink-ing passion flower and sour passion fruit. Both P. foetida and P. edulis were suscep-tible to R. reniformis, but immune (or highly resistant) to both M. javanica and P. brachyurus. Based on previous and the present work, R. reniformis stands out and could be pointed as the most important species to species of Passiflora.