Date of Award
5-2015
Document Type
Thesis
Degree Name
Master of Science (MS)
Legacy Department
Plant and Environmental Science
Committee Chair/Advisor
Dr. Paula Agudelo
Committee Member
Dr. Christina Wells
Committee Member
Dr. Patrick Gerard
Abstract
Reniform nematode, Rotelynchulus reniformis, is a semi-endoparasite capable of infecting more that 300 host plant species in tropical, subtropical, and warm temperate regions. Female nematodes penetrate host roots and introduce effectors that lead to the formation of multinucleate feeding sites called syncytia. The objective of our study was to identify plant genes involved in the process of syncitium formation. We used a split-root system in which half of a plant’s roots were inoculated with R. reniformis while the rest of the root system remained uninfected. Illumina RNA-seq was used to quantify gene expression patterns in replicate samples of infected and uninfected root tissue at three, six, nine and twelve days after inoculation. Reads were mapped to the soybean reference genome using TopHat, transcript abundances were calculated with HTSeq, and genes differentially expressed between inoculated and non-inoculated roots were identified using DESeq2. Blast2GO Pro was used to annotate differentially expressed genes and to identify GO terms over-represented in the differentially expressed gene set. Among the differentially expressed genes include several cell wall modifiers, proteins related to hormone response and production, cell cycle regulators, and transcription factors. Our work provides a foundation for understanding the role of plant-based gene expression changes on reniform nematode infection and feeding site formation.
Recommended Citation
Redding, Nathan Wayne, "Establishing a Permanent Feeding Site: Reniform Nematode Manipulation of Soybean Genes" (2015). All Theses. 2153.
https://tigerprints.clemson.edu/all_theses/2153