Phenotypic plasticity in root system architecture: key to tolerance to parasitic nematodes in plants?

Background

Root-parasitic nematodes have a significant impact on plant growth and development, leading to reduced yield of food crops globally. Interestingly, plants show intraspecific variation in their growth responses to nematode infections. In other words, some plants are more tolerant than other plants. Up to now, tolerance to root-parasitic nematodes is mainly studied in field crops, making it difficult to understand the underlying mechanisms as to why plants differ in their tolerance levels. Therefore, we turned to the model plant Arabidopsis thaliana which is often used to study the role natural genetic variation, molecular, and cellular mechanisms. Knowledge of (molecular) mechanisms will help the breeding industry to develop nematode-tolerant crops.

Project description

In this project, we try to identify (molecular) mechanisms via two different strategies. 1) We developed a high-throughput phenotyping system to monitor the effect of cyst nematode infection on plant growth and development. This phenotyping system images the green canopy area of 960 plants every hour for 21 days. By imaging the green canopy area of a panel of wild Arabidopsis ecotypes over time, we can pinpoint which genomic regions contribute to tolerance to root parasitic nematodes. 2) Based on literature research, we select candidate genes and check if mutants are tolerant compared to wildtype plants.