Host Status of Wheat Cultivars to <i>Meloidogyne javanica</i> and <i>M. arenaria</i>

ABSTRACT Nowadays, wheat is one of the most important crops in southern Brazil, where it is usually grown in soybean systems. Therefore, one of the constraints is the occurrence of plant‐parasitic nematodes, such as Meloidogyne species. We aimed to evaluate the host status of six selected wheat cultivars (‘TBIO Ponteiro’, ‘TBIO Duque’, ‘Lenox’, ‘TBIO Calibre’, ‘TBIO Motriz’ and ‘TBIO Sossego’) in relation to M. javanica (experiments 1 and 2) and M. arenaria (experiments 3 and 4). These experiments were conducted under greenhouse conditions with five (2023) and four (2024) replicates. The plants were inoculated (initial population— Pi ) with 1200 and 800 specimens (eggs and second‐stage juveniles) of M. javanica and M. arenaria , respectively. After 99–100 days of the inoculation, we estimated the final population ( Pf ), the values of the reproductive factor (RF= Pf / Pi ) and the number of nematodes per gram of roots (nema g −1 ). During the experimental period, the mean soil temperatures were 15°C (2023) and 10.5°C (2024). The host status of the cultivars was defined based on their RF values, which were rated as resistant, highly resistant, moderately resistant, susceptible, highly susceptible, or moderately susceptible. The results obtained indicate that most of the cultivars are resistant or highly resistant to M. javanica (0.06 ≤ RF ≤ 0.82), but susceptible or moderately susceptible to M. arenaria (1.02 ≤ RF ≤ 5.29). The cultivar Lenox was susceptible to M. javanica (RF = 0.22–2.40). Broad‐sense heritability (H 2 ) for resistance to M. javanica and M. arenaria was considered high at 0.79 and 0.66, respectively. To the best of our knowledge, this is one of the earliest records of the evaluation of the host status of Brazilian cultivars to M. arenaria , and supports future recommendations for the management of these nematodes in infested areas.