Chemical communication in the rhizosphere is a current frontier in biology. Roots contribute to the production of secondary metabolites in the whole plant, and release compounds into the soil, which have various protective and ecological functions.

Soil nematodes depend entirely on chemical cues to locate their hosts, and to distinguish between suitable and unsuitable plants. Most nematodes are specialist feeders on particular plants, microorganisms or insects, and they are strongly attracted to chemical cues from their hosts. There is ample evidence for odor-mediated host recognition in nematodes, but the attractant cues are largely unknown.

The goal is to identify the chemical cues which attract plant parasitic nematodes to their hosts. We choose potato cyst nematodes Globodera pallida and G. rostochiensis for our study, since these two species specifically infest few solanaceous species, and since they are the most problematic pests of potato in Europe.

Funding

This project is funded by FORMAS

Personnel

Kevin Farnier, Sanja Manduric, Marie Bengtsson, Peter Witzgall