Starvation-induced lipid reserve depletion in Pratylenchus brachyurus leads to decreased infectivity in maize roots

What is it about?

It is known that there is a direct and positive relationship between the amount of energy nematodes carry in their bodies and their capacity to infect plants. The main source of energy stored by nematodes is neutral lipids. These compounds can be indirectly measured by staining and image analysis. This relationship was previously studied for root-knot nematodes (genus Melloidogyne), but not in root-lesion nematodes, e.g. genus Pratylenchus. In this study we estimated the amount of lipids in different stages of the life cycle of the species Pratylenchus brachyurus by staining. Second stage juveniles (J2) that had just emerged from the eggs had lower amounts of lipids than third- and fourth-stage juveniles (J3/J4) and females that were extracted from maize roots. Because the amount of lipids in the bodies of J2 was lower, they were less infective in maize roots than J3/J4 and females after 28 days of starvation, where they had to spend their reserves to survive. However, J2 lost their lipid reserves at a lower pace as compared to J3/J4 and females. These results are interesting because we control nematodes of the genus Meloidogyne with an environmentally-friendly technique called humid fallow, where the soil is irrigated and ploughed to eliminate any potential host plants for at least 14 days. With this study we found that more than 28 days of humid fallow are necessary to control P. brachyurus in maize.

Featured Image