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ARS Home » Pacific West Area » Corvallis, Oregon » Horticultural Crops Disease and Pest Management Research Unit » Research » Publications at this Location » Publication #382876
Research Project: Development of Knowledge-based Approaches for Disease Management in Small Fruit and Nursery Crops

Location: Horticultural Crops Disease and Pest Management Research Unit

Title: Transcriptional response of meloidogyne incognita to non-fumigant nematicides

Author
item WRAM, CATIE - Oregon State University
item Hesse, Cedar
item Zasada, Inga

Submitted to: Molecular Plant-Microbe Interactions
Publication Type: Peer Reviewed Journal
Publication Acceptance Date: 5/27/2022
Publication Date: 6/13/2022
Citation: Wram, C.L., Hesse, C.N., Zasada, I.A. 2022. Transcriptional response of meloidogyne incognita to non-fumigant nematicides. Molecular Plant-Microbe Interactions. 12:9814. https://doi.org/10.1038/s41598-022-13815-9.
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/s41598-022-13815-9

Interpretive Summary: Plant-parasitic nematodes are microscopic soil worms that attack the roots of plants and cause significant loss in yield to this crop. Farmers lack reliable methods to reduce the impact of nematodes on plant productivity. In recent years, there have been new nematicides, chemicals that kill nematodes, that have become available for us by growers to manage plant-parasitic nematodes in a diversity of crop production systems. This research was conducted to evaluate the effects of these new nematicides on gene expression in the root-knot nematode. Results revealed differences in how nematodes respond to nematicides at the molecular level. Having a greater biological understanding of how these compounds function at a molecular level will help to promote proper stewardship, aid with nematicide discovery, and help to stay a step ahead of potential resistance.

Technical Abstract: Despite being a pervasive economically important pest, there are a limited options available to manage the plant-parasitic nematode Meloidogyne incognita. Chemical controls are the primary means of managing nematodes, with >$1 billion a year of the nematicide market spent on suppressing Meloidogyne species. There is limited research about the impacts of new nematicides that have entered the market including fluazaindolizine, fluopyram and fluensulfone on M. incognita, particularly in regards to the effects at a molecular level. In this study, M. incognita second-stage juveniles (J2) were exposed for 24-hrs to fluensulfone, fluazaindolizine, fluopyram, and oxamyl and total RNA was isolated and sequenced using next-generation sequencing to determine gene expression. The effects of nematicide exposure on cellular detoxification, common differentially expressed genes, and fatty acid and retinol-binding genes were examined. Fluopyram and oxamyl had the smallest impacts on the M. incognita transcriptome with only 48 and 151 genes that were differentially expressed (DE), respectively. These compounds also elicited a weak response in the cellular detoxification pathway and fatty acid and retinol-binding (FAR) genes. Fluensulfone and fluazaindolizine both resulted in robust transcriptional responses with 1,208 and 2,611 DE genes, respectively. These compounds had strong impacts on cellular detoxification, causing differential regulation of transcription factors and mixed regulation of genes in the detox pathway. Both of these compounds strongly downregulated FAR genes between 52-85%. Having a greater biological understanding of how these compounds function at a molecular level will help to promote proper stewardship, aid with nematicide discovery, and help to stay a step ahead of potential resistance.