抄録
Root-knot nematodes (RKNs) are a major parasite of plants, causing approximately 5% loss of total agriculture world-wide. RKN are sedentary endoparasites that establish a single permanent feeding site within plant roots as a juvenile, and then spend their whole remaining life-cycle at this single site. Due to the hidden nature of RKN, most current control methods use toxic chemicals to treat soil prior to sowing, which targets RKN during its brief free-moving stage. The development of safe and effective control methods requires understanding of how RKN induces a feeding site within host plants. Tomato is one agricultural crop affected by RKN. Based on increasing resources at the Tomato National BioResource Project, we have selected the tomato variety Micro-Tom as a model plant to study RKN infection. We have shown that RKN readily infects Micro-Tom and are studying early infection events using in vitro cultures. We have also initiated a forward genetics approach to identify host genes involved in RKN infection, and have identified several putative mutants from this screening. Lab home page: http://gotolab.cris.hokudai.ac.jp
