ID/Diagnostic: Morphological
Morphological: Characteristics of the males, females, and juveniles (Karssen, 1996).
Mistaken Identities:
Meloidogyne fallax is morphologically similar to and was initially considered a race of M. chitwoodi.
Unless very closely examined, M. fallax, M. chitwoodi, and M. hapla may be easily confused. M. fallax has also been misidentified as M. incognita and M. minor.
In Progress / Literature-based Diagnostics:
Molecular: Common molecular techniques to identify M. fallax include RFLP, SCAR, and RAPD-based procedures.
Petersen and Vrain (1996) and Wishart et al. (2002) developed PCR primers to identify M. chitwoodi, M. hapla, and M. fallax.
Zijlstra (1997) used a multiplex PCR to distinguish M. hapla, M. chitwoodi, M. fallax, and M. incognita. Zijlstra (2000) used SCAR-PCR to identify M. hapla, M. chitwoodi, and M. fallax.
Update: This PCR was designed before the description of M. minor, and subsequent research by Nischwitz et al. (2013) showed that M. minor amplification also occurs and cannot be distinguished from M. fallax using this SCAR-PCR. Therefore, it is not advised to use this protocol if a mixed presence of both M. fallax and M. minor is possible in the same sample.
Adam et al. (2007) developed a molecular diagnostic key to identify juveniles of seven species, including M. incognita, M. javanica, M. arenaria, M. mayaguensis, M. hapla, M. chitwoodi, and M. fallax. Petersen et al. (1997) used a multiplex PCR to distinguish the juveniles and eggs of the same seven species. Fourie et al. (2001) distinguished the same species except M. mayaguensis.
A real-time PCR for the simultaneous detection of M. fallax and M. chitwoodi has been developed (Zijlstra and van Hoof, 2006).
Nischwitz et al. (2013) describe a method to distinguish M. fallax from M. minor and M. chitwoodi by amplification and sequencing of Hsp90 genomic DNA.