  For a given singularity of a plane curve we consider the locus of nodal
deformations of the singularity with the given number of nodes and describe
possible components of the locus. As applications, we solve the local
symplectic isotopy for nodal curves in a neighborhood of a given
pseudoholomorphic curve without multiple components and prove the uniqueness of
the symplectic isotopy class for nodal pseudoholomorphic curves of low genus in
$\CP^2$ and $\CP^2 # \bar\CP^2$.
