Open Access

REVIEW

Multifaceted Strategies Used by Root-Knot Nematodes to Parasitize Plants-A Review

Adnan Shakeel^*, Abrar Ahmad Khan, Mohammad Haris

Division of Environmental Botany, Department of Botany, Aligarh Muslim University, Aligarh, 202002, India

* Corresponding Author: Adnan Shakeel. Email:

Phyton-International Journal of Experimental Botany 2020, 89(2), 205-215. https://doi.org/10.32604/phyton.2020.08922

Received 24 October 2019; Accepted 20 December 2019; Issue published 22 April 2020

Abstract

Root-knot nematodes being omnipresent in agricultural and horticultural soils are tallied among the most important economic pathogens around the world. For successful parasitism, these nematodes use various strategies to control and manipulate the host plant’s cell machinery. These strategies include the molecular mimicry of some host genes by some nematode secreted effector proteins, secretion of cell wall digesting enzymes and other effector proteins that are responsible for the suppression of defence by the host plant. All these secretions which are released through the stylet, contribute to the formation of specialized feeding sites or giant cells. The effector proteins interfere with the normal physiology, cytology and biochemistry of the host plant. The present review brings novel insights by summarizing some novel effectors that have been discovered recently like MgPDI, MiMIF, MiIDL1, MiISE6, Mg16820, etc. It also discusses some novel mechanisms through which these effector proteins target different pathways of host plants and thus facilitate nematode parasitism.

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Citations