SYNTHETIC Caenorhabditis elegans DAF-12 LIGAND REGULATE ROOT-KNOT NEMATODE INFECTION AND C. capitata LIFE CYCLE

SANTILLÁN V; A. RABOSSI; MURNARRIZ E; RODRIGUEZ C; OPEZZO G; ALVAREZ L; BURTON G; CASTRO O

Mar del Plata

Congreso; 51 Annual Meeting Argentine Society for Biochemistry and Molecular Biology; 2015

Sociedad Argentina de Investigación en Bioquímica y Biología Molecular (SAIB)

The root-knot nematode Meloidogyne is able to infect almost all cultivated plant and its life cycle starts when the preparasitic juveniles J2 invade the root, develop into J3, J4 juvenile stages and induce the development of galls. Meloidogyne genome has homologues to almost all the components of the dafachronic acids biosynthetic andsignaling pathways. In particular there is a homologue to CeDAF-12 which is a ligand dependent transcription factor that mediates the choice between arrest or reproductive development in C. elegans. In this study, we evaluated the potential use of a synthetic DAF-12 antagonist (DAF4) in controlling the infection of tomato plants. We treated the J2 with 100uM DAF4, infected tomato roots and determined the number of galls. Our results showed that treatment of Meloidogyne with DAF4 decreased the number of galls found probably by interfering with its development. Inaddition, we analyzed if DAF4 (5 and 10 mM) added to food at the beginning of the larval stage III had the ability to interfere with: normal development of the third larval stage, the metamorphosis and the emergence of the medfly in C. capitata. Larval development span, size and weight of the pupae and the % of flying adults and pupae was determined. DAF4 did not delayed the onset of metamorphosis, but caused a 25-28% reduction in the weight and the size of the pupae.