| Summary: | Fluopimomide is a new pesticide that is widely applied in agriculture; however, the effects and molecular mechanisms of fluopimomide in inhibiting nematode reproduction remain unknown. In this study, the effects of fluopimomide on the development and infection of <i>Meloidogyne incognita</i> and the reproductive toxicity in <i>Caenorhabditis elegans</i> were evaluated. Results showed that, in comparison to inoculated control, fluopimomide at 0.33, 0.67, and 1.0 mg/kg soil significantly (<i>p</i> < 0.05) delayed <i>M. incognita</i> development and decreased the reproduction in pot experiments. Fluopimomide notably reduced the galls index with a control effect of 78.6%, 67.9%, and 50.0%, respectively. In addition, a dose–response relationship existed between the brood size and germ cell number of <i>C. elegans</i> and fluopimomide concentrations. Compared with the control group, fluopimomide at 1.0 and 5.0 mg/L notably (<i>p</i> < 0.001) increased the number of cell corpses per gonad in the N2 strain of <i>C. elegans</i> by 8.8- and 14.4-fold, respectively. The number of cell corpses per gonad was similar between the fluopimomide treated worms and the control group in mutants of <i>ced-3</i>, <i>ced-4</i>, and <i>ced-9</i>. Further evidence revealed fluopimomide significantly enhanced the expression of <i>cep-1</i>, <i>egl-1</i>, and <i>clk-2</i>, while no obvious effects were observed in their mutants. Taken together, these results indicated that fluopimomide inflicted DNA damage and induced the core apoptosis pathway caused by germ-cell apoptosis, leading to the reduction of the brood size of <i>C. elegans</i>.
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