Plant-nematode Interactions: From Genomics to Metabolomics

Plant parasitic nematodes are obligate parasites causing serious reduction in crop yields. Several economically important species parasitize various plant species, but the root knot and cyst nematodes belonging to the Heteroderidae family are especially dangerous. Plant parasitic nematodes result in crop losses of over $150 billion worldwide. This review gives an account of morpho-physiological and molecular events during parasitism of root-knot and cyst nematodes. It describes the transcriptomes and parasitomes of various nematodes indicating that the effector proteins are crucial for the compatible plant nematode interactions. Various sequencing techniques used in plant-nematode genomics and transcriptomics are discussed. Moreover, the dynamics of host transcriptomes in response to infection with different nematode species have been reported. The host transcriptomes have unrevealed many candidate genes, which are involved in both compatible and incompatible plant nematode interactions. The strategy of manipulation of expression of the genes induced and suppressed by the nematodes in the feeding sites has also been suggested for enhancement of resistance against nematodes. This review will provide the researchers with the information regarding transcriptional changes in the nematodes as well as host plants, which would be important for the induction of resistance against nematodes in different crop plants. (C) 2015 Friends Science Publishers