Application of biotechnology to understand pathogenesis in nematode plant pathogens.

Abstract

Substantial progress has been made over the past decade in our understanding of nematode parasitism of plants that is now being applied to devise novel management strategies for nematodes through the use of biotechnology. The main research focus has been on the discovery and functional analysis of genes that enable nematodes to parasitize plants. Plant-parasitic nematodes are equipped with an arsenal of parasitism-associated genes which encode for secreted proteins that are expressed in their oesophageal glands. The expressed proteins are released into the apoplast or cytoplasm of host cells through the nematode stylet for the establishment of successful parasitic associations. Understanding the nature of the secreted products of nematode parasitism genes is expanding our knowledge of what makes a nematode a plant parasite. Moreover, this knowledge has unveiled key targets for the genetic manipulation of plants for developing novel resistance strategies against nematodes.