Nematology Research Group

The group consisting of core staff, PhD students and research assistants works on diagnosis, biology, distribution and management of plant parasitic nematodes of field and protected crops in the UK and worldwide.

Additionally, a number of projects have investigated the use of nematode communities as a proxy for soil health (bioindicators). 

The group is active in knowledge transfer, training and education, consultancy and commercial trials. Group members are also involved in the organisation of conferences such as the Symposium of Potato Cyst Nematode Management and Advances in Nematology – see the Association of Applied Biologists for more details.

Academic staff

The core academic staff in the group are:

PhD students

• Katarzyna Dybal - Characterisation of Potato Cyst Nematode Populations (PCN) in Great Britain for Sustainable Crop Management.
• Valeria Orlando - Assessing the impact of root lesion nematode (Pratylenchus) on potatoes
• Nasamu Musa - Management of the stem and bulb nematode (Ditylenchus) in winter beans (Vicia faba L.) using biofumigant Brassica spp. and other allelopathic cover crops
• Ana Morais-Natalio - The impacts of using agri-food industry waste streams as soil amendments on soil health
• Aamir Khan - Investigation of the nematicides reklemel and oxamyl for the management of plant parasitic nematodes infecting potatoes

Facilities

• A bespoke facility for nematode elutriation/extraction
• A laboratory equipped with an array of microscopes for nematode identification and quantification
• Access to a Molecular Diagnostics Laboratory

Conference posters and presentations

Biofumigation presentation given at Cereals on 12^th June 2019 - Dr Matthew Back

Resources

• Potato Cyst Nematode presentation - Dr Ivan Grove
• Biofumigation presentation given at Cereals - Dr Matthew Back (June 2019)
• Survey of PCN in England and Wales - Kasia Dybal
• Methods for assessing PCN viability - Kasia Dybal