SGGW scientists take part in research to find new ways to develop nematode-resistant methods
Dr Sławomir Janakowski and dr Mirosław Sobczak, Department of Botany, Institute of Biology, SGGW conduct research to develop a system to fight against plant-parasitic nematodes.
Both scientists are involved in preparing the article titled „The genome and life stage-specific transcriptomes of a plant-parasitic nematode and its host reveal susceptibility genes involved in the trans-kingdom synthesis of vitamin B5” published by Nature Communications (2022, 13, 6190; IF = 14,919, 200 pts of MEiN). The publication is the result of many years of cooperation with scientists from the University of Bonn, Wageningen University, the University of Cambridge, INRAE, the University of California Davies, and other leading research units in the field of agricultural nematology.
Plant-parasitic nematodes are a major threat to crop production systems all around the world. They are estimated to cause losses of up to 25% each year, with a value of >80 billion US dollars3. The major contributors to these losses are notoriously difficult-to-control obligate biotrophic sedentary endo-parasites: a remarkable group of parasites that live inside and feed on living host root tissue.
Using a combination of bioinformatic, genetic, and biochemical approaches, researchers show that a highly atypical completion of vitamin B5 biosynthesis by the parasitic animal, putatively enabled by a horizontal gene transfer from a bacterium, is required for full pathogenicity. Knockout of either plant-encoded or now nematode-encoded steps in the pathway significantly reduces parasitic success. The approach identifies genome-editing-amenable targets for the future development of nematode-resistant crops.
Rys. Schematic representation of the life cycle of H. schachtii infecting A. thaliana, highlighting the 7 stages sampled in this study. For each stage, the average number of trimmed RNAseq read pairs per replicate is shown, with the proportion of reads mapping to either parasite or host in parentheses.
The experiments establish a reference for cyst nematodes, use this as a platform to further our fundamental understanding of the evolution of plant-parasitism, and show that the understanding of the congruent differential expression of metabolic pathways represents a new way to find nematode susceptibility genes, and thereby targets for the generation of genome edited crops resistant to nematodes.
More details at: https://www.nature.com/articles/s41467-022-33769-w