Table 2. Molecular overview of the nematode families and genera monitored in our study.
| Nematode family/genus | ΔCt | Relationship between Ct value andlog (# target nematodes): | # gener* | ||
| Ct = a ×log10 [# nematodes] + b | |||||
| a | b | R 2 | |||
| Alaimidae (B) | N/A | −3.31 | 25.47 | 0.996 | 1 |
| Aphelenchidae (F, FP) | 42 | −4.31 | 17.53 | 0.995 | 1 |
| Aphelenchoididae (F, FP ) | 20 | −3.06 | 24.09 | 0.992 | 1 |
| Cephalobidae (B) | 17 | −4.21 | 21.95 | 0.855 | 3 |
| Diphtherophoridae (F) : | |||||
| Diphtherophora | 18 | −3.22 | 19.18 | 0.926 | |
| Tylolaimophorus | N/A | −3.02 | 22.36 | 0.984 | |
| Dorylaimidae (O) | N/A | −5.90 | 17.30 | 0.859 | 1 |
| Metateratocephalidae (B) | 26 | −5.09 | 24.40 | 0.954 | 2 |
| Monhysteridae (B) | 23 | −4.25 | 21.06 | 0.954 | 1 |
| Mononchidae (P) | 18 | −2.94 | 15.19 | 0.990 | 1 |
| Mylonchulidae (P) ** | N/A | −4.02 | 12.03 | 0.977 | 1 |
| Plectidae (B) : | |||||
| Plectidae excl. Anaplectus | 34 | −1.93 | 26.82 | 0.989 | 1 |
| Anaplectus | 27 | −3.33 | 21.03 | 0.949 | |
| Prismatolaimidae (B) | 13 | −5.13 | 21.64 | 0.999 | 1 |
| Teratocephalidae (B) | N/A | −4.41 | 25.13 | 0.999 | 1 |
Specificity of primer combinations is expressed as the gap between the Ct value of the latest target and the Ct value of the earliest non-target (ΔCt expressed in number of PCR cycles). For relationship between Ct value and number of target nematodes see Fig. 4, and Materials and Methods in ‘Relationships between Ct values and numbers of target nematodes’.
B: bacterivore, F: fungivore, FP: facultative plant parasite (only for nematodes where this guild occurred in combination with fungivory), O: omnivore, P: predator; N/A: no quantitative PCR signal produced by non-target(s); *: number of genera within one family assessed by qPCR (families as in De Ley et al. [66]); **: as Mylonchulus is expected to occur in this area, its family has been included as additional taxon.