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Genetic modulation of surface coat variation in Caenorhabditis elegans and its applicability to bacterial pathogenesis of plant parasitic nematodes

Reference	BBS/E/C/00005018
Principal Investigator / Supervisor	Professor Brian Kerry
Co-Investigators / Co-Supervisors	Dr Keith Davies
Institution	Rothamsted Research
Department	Rothamsted Research Department
Funding type	Research
Value (£)	11,148
Status	Completed
Type	Institute Project
Start date	01/01/2009
End date	31/12/2009
Duration	12 months

Abstract

This project aims at identifying and characterising genes that lead to changes in the cuticle of Caenorhabditis elegans that affect sensitively to the bacterium Microbacterium nematophilum and seeing if similar genes are present in plant parasitic nematodes that relate to the sensitivity of plant parasitic nematodes to Pasteuria penetrans. Understanding the genetics of cuticle variation in relationship to Pasteuria pathogenesis will help in the deployment of strains of Pasteuria that can suppress plant parasitic nematode pests and act as a biological control agent as an alternative to using chemical pesticides. Therefore this project aims to identify surface coat genes of the cuticle of Caenorhabdiits elegans that confer resistance to bacterial infection and identify homologous genes in plant parasitic nematodes that are involved in the pathogenicity of Pasteuria penetrans to plant parasitic nematodes. Objectives: 1) Isolation of EMS-induced mutants resistant to M. nematophilum infection; 2) Genetic characterisation of new surface coat genes involved in bacterial pathogenesis by cloning and mapping; 3) Phenotype characterisation: growth in presence and absence of pathogen, lectin staining, cuticle fragility; 4) Screening for presence of homologous genes in plant parasitic nematodes of known susceptibilites to Pasteuria penetrans infection to identify genes involved in endospore attachment.

Summary

unavailable

Committee	Not funded via Committee
Research Topics	Crop Science, Microbiology, Plant Science
Research Priority	X – Research Priority information not available
Research Initiative	X - not in an Initiative
Funding Scheme	X – not Funded via a specific Funding Scheme

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