**1. Introduction**

Root knot nematodes (RKN) are sedentary internal plant parasites and belong to the genus *Meloidogyne*. The word *Meloidogyne* is originating from Greek that means a cup-shaped female of RKN (**Figure 1**). They cause huge economic losses due to diverse host range and adaptation to vast climatic conditions. Reverend Miles Joseph Berkeley (clergyman) for the first time discovered galls on the cucumber roots in 1855 [1]. The finest work of Chitwood even remains accurate until now; he classified *Meloidogyne* from Heterodera. That is why the current name of Chitwood is used as intermingled for RKN [2]. Most of the species are pathogenic that may reproduce sexually mainly but in certain cases, they may reproduce through asexual means (facultative pathogenesis) [3]. The worm-like males are short-lived and die after matting with a cup-shaped female (**Figure 1**) that is long-lived and penetrates the root tissues to lay about 500 eggs in a sheet formally known as an egg sac (gelatinous sheet). The amateur stages are juvenile (J) I, II, III, and IV. The first two (I and II) are worm-like and only J-II (**Figure 2**) actively feed and move [4]. The biology of RKN is given in **Figure 3**.

**Figure 1.** *Adult female of root-knot nematode (microscope view).*

**Figure 2.** *Juvenile-II female of root-knot nematode (microscope view).*

The RKN lacks any rigid skeletal form and thus utilizes the turgor-pressure (TP) for sustaining the bodily shape and locomotion [5]. They possess tiny stylet-like insects that are injected into the plant roots for taking nutrients. The adult female releases secretary proteins that induce the captured cells and cells to become multinucleated (with no cell wall formation). This process release protein that is ingested by the RKN through a feeding tube that filters the sap from plant roots. Because of this feeding behavior and cell divisions, the neighboring cells also grow bigger and causing swelling in the roots that ultimately leads to gall formation (**Figure 4**) in the roots [6].

*Perspective Chapter: Integrated Root-Knot Nematodes* (Meloidogyne) *Management Approaches DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.5772/intechopen.102882*

**Figure 3.** *Lifecycle of root-knot nematode.*

**Figure 4.** *Galls on infected roots of root-knot nematode.*
