Early Disease Development and Stem and Leaf Water Content in the Seedlings of Pinus koraiensis Inoculated with Pinewood Nematodes in a Greenhouse

Korean pine (Pinus koraiensis Sieb. et Zucc.), a five-needle pine, has recently been suffering pine wilt disease caused by non-native pinewood nematode, Bursaphelenchus xylophilus. Three-year-old Korean pine seedlings were inoculated with 10,000 pathogenic nematodes in a greenhouse to investigate disease development, water content and the density of nematodes in stems. Needle dehydration, xylem drying and pith browning started 20 days after inoculation (DAI). There were significant differences between seedlings inoculated with nematodes and control seedlings in the relative water content of stems and leaves at 20 and 30 DAI. At 60 DAI, all remaining seedlings inoculated with nematodes had died, but control seedlings all remained alive. The average number of nematodes recovered from stems of Korean pine dramatically increased from 10 to 20 DAI, and then decreased at the end of the experiment at 60 days. This study suggests that the relative water content of stems and leaves in current-year branches could be used as a useful physiological indicator for early diagnosis of pine wilt disease.