1
|
Godthi A, Min S, Das S, Cruz-Corchado J, Deonarine A, Misel-Wuchter K, Issuree PD, Prahlad V. Neuronal IL-17 controls Caenorhabditis elegans developmental diapause through CEP-1/p53. Proc Natl Acad Sci U S A 2024; 121:e2315248121. [PMID: 38483995 PMCID: PMC10963014 DOI: 10.1073/pnas.2315248121] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 09/01/2023] [Accepted: 02/06/2024] [Indexed: 03/19/2024] Open
Abstract
During metazoan development, how cell division and metabolic programs are coordinated with nutrient availability remains unclear. Here, we show that nutrient availability signaled by the neuronal cytokine, ILC-17.1, switches Caenorhabditis elegans development between reproductive growth and dormancy by controlling the activity of the tumor suppressor p53 ortholog, CEP-1. Specifically, upon food availability, ILC-17.1 signaling by amphid neurons promotes glucose utilization and suppresses CEP-1/p53 to allow growth. In the absence of ILC-17.1, CEP-1/p53 is activated, up-regulates cell-cycle inhibitors, decreases phosphofructokinase and cytochrome C expression, and causes larvae to arrest as stress-resistant, quiescent dauers. We propose a model whereby ILC-17.1 signaling links nutrient availability and energy metabolism to cell cycle progression through CEP-1/p53. These studies describe ancestral functions of IL-17 s and the p53 family of proteins and are relevant to our understanding of neuroimmune mechanisms in cancer. They also reveal a DNA damage-independent function of CEP-1/p53 in invertebrate development and support the existence of a previously undescribed C. elegans dauer pathway.
Collapse
Affiliation(s)
- Abhishiktha Godthi
- Department of Cell Stress Biology, Roswell Park Comprehensive Cancer Center, Buffalo, NY14263
- Department of Biology, The University of Iowa, Iowa City, IA52242-1324
| | - Sehee Min
- Department of Cell Stress Biology, Roswell Park Comprehensive Cancer Center, Buffalo, NY14263
- Department of Biology, The University of Iowa, Iowa City, IA52242-1324
| | - Srijit Das
- Department of Biology, The University of Iowa, Iowa City, IA52242-1324
| | - Johnny Cruz-Corchado
- Department of Cell Stress Biology, Roswell Park Comprehensive Cancer Center, Buffalo, NY14263
- Department of Biology, The University of Iowa, Iowa City, IA52242-1324
| | - Andrew Deonarine
- Department of Biology, The University of Iowa, Iowa City, IA52242-1324
| | - Kara Misel-Wuchter
- Department of Internal Medicine, The University of Iowa, Iowa City, IA52242
| | - Priya D. Issuree
- Department of Internal Medicine, The University of Iowa, Iowa City, IA52242
| | - Veena Prahlad
- Department of Cell Stress Biology, Roswell Park Comprehensive Cancer Center, Buffalo, NY14263
- Department of Biology, The University of Iowa, Iowa City, IA52242-1324
| |
Collapse
|
2
|
Abstract
Numerous examples of different phenotypic outcomes in response to varying environmental conditions have been described across phyla, from plants to mammals. Here, we examine the impact of the environment on different developmental traits, focusing in particular on one key environmental variable, nutrient availability. We present advances in our understanding of developmental plasticity in response to food variation using the nematode Caenorhabditis elegans, which provides a near-isogenic context while permitting lab-controlled environments and analysis of wild isolates. We discuss how this model has allowed investigators not only to describe developmental plasticity events at the organismal level but also to zoom in on the tissues involved in translating changes in the environment into a plastic response, as well as the underlying molecular pathways, and sometimes associated changes in behaviour. Lastly, we also discuss how early life starvation experiences can be logged to later impact adult physiological traits, and how such memory could be wired.
Collapse
Affiliation(s)
- Sophie Jarriault
- Université de Strasbourg, CNRS, Inserm, IGBMC, Development and Stem Cells Department, UMR 7104 - UMR-S 1258, F-67400 Illkirch, France
| | - Christelle Gally
- Université de Strasbourg, CNRS, Inserm, IGBMC, Development and Stem Cells Department, UMR 7104 - UMR-S 1258, F-67400 Illkirch, France
| |
Collapse
|
3
|
Jiang WI, De Belly H, Wang B, Wong A, Kim M, Oh F, DeGeorge J, Huang X, Guang S, Weiner OD, Ma DK. Early-life stress triggers long-lasting organismal resilience and longevity via tetraspanin. SCIENCE ADVANCES 2024; 10:eadj3880. [PMID: 38266092 PMCID: PMC10807809 DOI: 10.1126/sciadv.adj3880] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [MESH Headings] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 06/23/2023] [Accepted: 12/22/2023] [Indexed: 01/26/2024]
Abstract
Early-life stress experiences can produce lasting impacts on organismal adaptation and fitness. How transient stress elicits memory-like physiological effects is largely unknown. Here, we show that early-life thermal stress strongly up-regulates tsp-1, a gene encoding the conserved transmembrane tetraspanin in C. elegans. TSP-1 forms prominent multimers and stable web-like structures critical for membrane barrier functions in adults and during aging. Increased TSP-1 abundance persists even after transient early-life heat stress. Such regulation requires CBP-1, a histone acetyltransferase that facilitates initial tsp-1 transcription. Tetraspanin webs form regular membrane structures and mediate resilience-promoting effects of early-life thermal stress. Gain-of-function TSP-1 confers marked C. elegans longevity extension and thermal resilience in human cells. Together, our results reveal a cellular mechanism by which early-life thermal stress produces long-lasting memory-like impact on organismal resilience and longevity.
Collapse
Affiliation(s)
- Wei I. Jiang
- Cardiovascular Research Institute, University of California, San Francisco, San Francisco, CA, USA
| | - Henry De Belly
- Cardiovascular Research Institute, University of California, San Francisco, San Francisco, CA, USA
- Department of Biochemistry and Biophysics, University of California, San Francisco, San Francisco, CA, USA
| | - Bingying Wang
- Cardiovascular Research Institute, University of California, San Francisco, San Francisco, CA, USA
| | - Andrew Wong
- Cardiovascular Research Institute, University of California, San Francisco, San Francisco, CA, USA
| | - Minseo Kim
- Cardiovascular Research Institute, University of California, San Francisco, San Francisco, CA, USA
| | - Fiona Oh
- Cardiovascular Research Institute, University of California, San Francisco, San Francisco, CA, USA
| | - Jason DeGeorge
- Cardiovascular Research Institute, University of California, San Francisco, San Francisco, CA, USA
| | - Xinya Huang
- The USTC RNA Institute, Division of Life Sciences and Medicine, Department of Obstetrics and Gynecology, The First Affiliated Hospital of USTC, Biomedical Sciences and Health Laboratory of Anhui Province, University of Science and Technology of China, Hefei, Anhui, China
| | - Shouhong Guang
- The USTC RNA Institute, Division of Life Sciences and Medicine, Department of Obstetrics and Gynecology, The First Affiliated Hospital of USTC, Biomedical Sciences and Health Laboratory of Anhui Province, University of Science and Technology of China, Hefei, Anhui, China
| | - Orion D. Weiner
- Cardiovascular Research Institute, University of California, San Francisco, San Francisco, CA, USA
- Department of Biochemistry and Biophysics, University of California, San Francisco, San Francisco, CA, USA
| | - Dengke K. Ma
- Cardiovascular Research Institute, University of California, San Francisco, San Francisco, CA, USA
- Department of Physiology, University of California, San Francisco, San Francisco, CA, USA
- Innovative Genomics Institute, University of California, Berkeley, Berkeley, CA, USA
| |
Collapse
|
4
|
Kyani-Rogers T, Philbrook A, McLachlan IG, Flavell SW, O’Donnell MP, Sengupta P. Developmental history modulates adult olfactory behavioral preferences via regulation of chemoreceptor expression in Caenorhabditiselegans. Genetics 2022; 222:iyac143. [PMID: 36094348 PMCID: PMC9630977 DOI: 10.1093/genetics/iyac143] [Citation(s) in RCA: 4] [Impact Index Per Article: 2.0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 06/03/2022] [Accepted: 09/02/2022] [Indexed: 11/14/2022] Open
Abstract
Developmental experiences play critical roles in shaping adult physiology and behavior. We and others previously showed that adult Caenorhabditiselegans which transiently experienced dauer arrest during development (postdauer) exhibit distinct gene expression profiles as compared to control adults which bypassed the dauer stage. In particular, the expression patterns of subsets of chemoreceptor genes are markedly altered in postdauer adults. Whether altered chemoreceptor levels drive behavioral plasticity in postdauer adults is unknown. Here, we show that postdauer adults exhibit enhanced attraction to a panel of food-related attractive volatile odorants including the bacterially produced chemical diacetyl. Diacetyl-evoked responses in the AWA olfactory neuron pair are increased in both dauer larvae and postdauer adults, and we find that these increased responses are correlated with upregulation of the diacetyl receptor ODR-10 in AWA likely via both transcriptional and posttranscriptional mechanisms. We show that transcriptional upregulation of odr-10 expression in dauer larvae is in part mediated by the DAF-16 FOXO transcription factor. Via transcriptional profiling of sorted populations of AWA neurons from control and postdauer animals, we further show that the expression of a subset of additional chemoreceptor genes in AWA is regulated similarly to odr-10 in postdauer animals. Our results suggest that developmental experiences may be encoded at the level of olfactory receptor regulation, and provide a simple mechanism by which C. elegans is able to precisely modulate its behavioral preferences as a function of its current and past experiences.
Collapse
Affiliation(s)
| | - Alison Philbrook
- Department of Biology, Brandeis University, Waltham, MA 02454, USA
| | - Ian G McLachlan
- Picower Institute for Learning and Memory, Department of Brain and Cognitive Sciences, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Cambridge, MA 02139, USA
| | - Steven W Flavell
- Picower Institute for Learning and Memory, Department of Brain and Cognitive Sciences, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Cambridge, MA 02139, USA
| | | | - Piali Sengupta
- Department of Biology, Brandeis University, Waltham, MA 02454, USA
| |
Collapse
|
5
|
Chen X, Rechavi O. Plant and animal small RNA communications between cells and organisms. Nat Rev Mol Cell Biol 2022; 23:185-203. [PMID: 34707241 PMCID: PMC9208737 DOI: 10.1038/s41580-021-00425-y] [Citation(s) in RCA: 59] [Impact Index Per Article: 29.5] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Accepted: 09/24/2021] [Indexed: 01/09/2023]
Abstract
Since the discovery of eukaryotic small RNAs as the main effectors of RNA interference in the late 1990s, diverse types of endogenous small RNAs have been characterized, most notably microRNAs, small interfering RNAs (siRNAs) and PIWI-interacting RNAs (piRNAs). These small RNAs associate with Argonaute proteins and, through sequence-specific gene regulation, affect almost every major biological process. Intriguing features of small RNAs, such as their mechanisms of amplification, rapid evolution and non-cell-autonomous function, bestow upon them the capacity to function as agents of intercellular communications in development, reproduction and immunity, and even in transgenerational inheritance. Although there are many types of extracellular small RNAs, and despite decades of research, the capacity of these molecules to transmit signals between cells and between organisms is still highly controversial. In this Review, we discuss evidence from different plants and animals that small RNAs can act in a non-cell-autonomous manner and even exchange information between species. We also discuss mechanistic insights into small RNA communications, such as the nature of the mobile agents, small RNA signal amplification during transit, signal perception and small RNA activity at the destination.
Collapse
Affiliation(s)
- Xuemei Chen
- Department of Botany and Plant Sciences, Institute for Integrative Genome Biology, University of California, Riverside, CA, USA.
| | - Oded Rechavi
- Department of Neurobiology, The George S. Wise Faculty of Life Sciences, Tel Aviv University, Tel Aviv, Israel. .,Sagol School of Neuroscience, Tel Aviv University, Tel Aviv, Israel.
| |
Collapse
|
6
|
Ow MC, Nichitean AM, Hall SE. Somatic aging pathways regulate reproductive plasticity in Caenorhabditis elegans. eLife 2021; 10:61459. [PMID: 34236316 PMCID: PMC8291976 DOI: 10.7554/elife.61459] [Citation(s) in RCA: 6] [Impact Index Per Article: 2.0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 07/26/2020] [Accepted: 06/26/2021] [Indexed: 01/21/2023] Open
Abstract
In animals, early-life stress can result in programmed changes in gene expression that can affect their adult phenotype. In C. elegans nematodes, starvation during the first larval stage promotes entry into a stress-resistant dauer stage until environmental conditions improve. Adults that have experienced dauer (postdauers) retain a memory of early-life starvation that results in gene expression changes and reduced fecundity. Here, we show that the endocrine pathways attributed to the regulation of somatic aging in C. elegans adults lacking a functional germline also regulate the reproductive phenotypes of postdauer adults that experienced early-life starvation. We demonstrate that postdauer adults reallocate fat to benefit progeny at the expense of the parental somatic fat reservoir and exhibit increased longevity compared to controls. Our results also show that the modification of somatic fat stores due to parental starvation memory is inherited in the F1 generation and may be the result of crosstalk between somatic and reproductive tissues mediated by the germline nuclear RNAi pathway.
Collapse
Affiliation(s)
- Maria C Ow
- Department of Biology, Syracuse University, Syracuse, United States
| | | | - Sarah E Hall
- Department of Biology, Syracuse University, Syracuse, United States
| |
Collapse
|
7
|
Developmental plasticity and the response to nutrient stress in Caenorhabditis elegans. Dev Biol 2021; 475:265-276. [PMID: 33549550 DOI: 10.1016/j.ydbio.2021.01.015] [Citation(s) in RCA: 10] [Impact Index Per Article: 3.3] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 10/13/2020] [Revised: 12/24/2020] [Accepted: 01/29/2021] [Indexed: 11/23/2022]
Abstract
Developmental plasticity refers the ability of an organism to adapt to various environmental stressors, one of which is nutritional stress. Caenorhabditis elegans require various nutrients to successfully progress through all the larval stages to become a reproductive adult. If nutritional criteria are not satisfied, development can slow or completely arrest. In poor growth conditions, the animal can enter various diapause stages, depending on its developmental progress. In C. elegans, there are three well-characterized diapauses: the L1 arrest, the dauer diapause, and adult reproductive diapause, each associated with drastic changes in metabolism and germline development. At the centre of these changes is AMP-activated protein kinase (AMPK). AMPK is a metabolic regulator that maintains energy homeostasis, particularly during times of nutrient stress. Without AMPK, metabolism is disrupted during dauer, leading to the rapid consumption of lipid stores as well as misregulation of metabolic enzymes, leading to reduced survival. During the L1 arrest and dauer diapause, AMPK is responsible for ensuring germline quiescence by modifying the germline chromatin landscape to maintain germ cell integrity until conditions improve. Similar to classic hormonal signalling, small RNAs also play a critical role in regulating development and behaviour in a cell non-autonomous fashion. Thus, during the challenges associated with developmental plasticity, AMPK summons an army of signalling pathways to work collectively to preserve reproductive fitness during these periods of unprecedented uncertainty.
Collapse
|
8
|
Baugh LR, Hu PJ. Starvation Responses Throughout the Caenorhabditiselegans Life Cycle. Genetics 2020; 216:837-878. [PMID: 33268389 PMCID: PMC7768255 DOI: 10.1534/genetics.120.303565] [Citation(s) in RCA: 47] [Impact Index Per Article: 11.8] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 06/22/2020] [Accepted: 08/17/2020] [Indexed: 02/07/2023] Open
Abstract
Caenorhabditis elegans survives on ephemeral food sources in the wild, and the species has a variety of adaptive responses to starvation. These features of its life history make the worm a powerful model for studying developmental, behavioral, and metabolic starvation responses. Starvation resistance is fundamental to life in the wild, and it is relevant to aging and common diseases such as cancer and diabetes. Worms respond to acute starvation at different times in the life cycle by arresting development and altering gene expression and metabolism. They also anticipate starvation during early larval development, engaging an alternative developmental program resulting in dauer diapause. By arresting development, these responses postpone growth and reproduction until feeding resumes. A common set of signaling pathways mediates systemic regulation of development in each context but with important distinctions. Several aspects of behavior, including feeding, foraging, taxis, egg laying, sleep, and associative learning, are also affected by starvation. A variety of conserved signaling, gene regulatory, and metabolic mechanisms support adaptation to starvation. Early life starvation can have persistent effects on adults and their descendants. With its short generation time, C. elegans is an ideal model for studying maternal provisioning, transgenerational epigenetic inheritance, and developmental origins of adult health and disease in humans. This review provides a comprehensive overview of starvation responses throughout the C. elegans life cycle.
Collapse
Affiliation(s)
- L Ryan Baugh
- Department of Biology, Center for Genomic and Computational Biology, Duke University, Durham, North Carolina 27708 and
| | - Patrick J Hu
- Departments of Medicine and Cell and Developmental Biology, Vanderbilt University School of Medicine, Nashville, Tennessee 37232
| |
Collapse
|
9
|
Abstract
With a nervous system that has only a few hundred neurons, Caenorhabditis elegans was initially not regarded as a model for studies on learning. However, the collective effort of the C. elegans field in the past several decades has shown that the worm displays plasticity in its behavioral response to a wide range of sensory cues in the environment. As a bacteria-feeding worm, C. elegans is highly adaptive to the bacteria enriched in its habitat, especially those that are pathogenic and pose a threat to survival. It uses several common forms of behavioral plasticity that last for different amounts of time, including imprinting and adult-stage associative learning, to modulate its interactions with pathogenic bacteria. Probing the molecular, cellular and circuit mechanisms underlying these forms of experience-dependent plasticity has identified signaling pathways and regulatory insights that are conserved in more complex animals.
Collapse
Affiliation(s)
- He Liu
- Department of Organismic and Evolutionary Biology, Center for Brain Science, Harvard University, Cambridge, MA, USA
| | - Yun Zhang
- Department of Organismic and Evolutionary Biology, Center for Brain Science, Harvard University, Cambridge, MA, USA
| |
Collapse
|
10
|
Bayer EA, Sun H, Rafi I, Hobert O. Temporal, Spatial, Sexual and Environmental Regulation of the Master Regulator of Sexual Differentiation in C. elegans. Curr Biol 2020; 30:3604-3616.e3. [DOI: 10.1016/j.cub.2020.06.060] [Citation(s) in RCA: 6] [Impact Index Per Article: 1.5] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 01/22/2020] [Revised: 05/04/2020] [Accepted: 06/17/2020] [Indexed: 12/23/2022]
|
11
|
Ow MC, Hall SE. Starvation memory resulting in reproductive plasticity is conserved in some Caenorhabditis elegans wild isolates. MICROPUBLICATION BIOLOGY 2020; 2020:10.17912/micropub.biology.000243. [PMID: 32550482 PMCID: PMC7252231 DOI: 10.17912/micropub.biology.000243] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 11/17/2022]
Affiliation(s)
- Maria C. Ow
- Syracuse University, Department of Biology, Syracuse, NY
| | - Sarah E. Hall
- Syracuse University, Department of Biology, Syracuse, NY,
Correspondence to: Sarah E. Hall ()
| |
Collapse
|
12
|
Kadekar P, Roy R. AMPK regulates germline stem cell quiescence and integrity through an endogenous small RNA pathway. PLoS Biol 2019; 17:e3000309. [PMID: 31166944 PMCID: PMC6576793 DOI: 10.1371/journal.pbio.3000309] [Citation(s) in RCA: 17] [Impact Index Per Article: 3.4] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [MESH Headings] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 12/16/2018] [Revised: 06/17/2019] [Accepted: 05/16/2019] [Indexed: 01/07/2023] Open
Abstract
During suboptimal growth conditions, Caenorhabditis elegans larvae undergo a global developmental arrest called “dauer.” During this stage, the germline stem cells (GSCs) become quiescent in an AMP-activated Protein Kinase (AMPK)-dependent manner, and in the absence of AMPK, the GSCs overproliferate and lose their reproductive capacity, leading to sterility when mutant animals resume normal growth. These defects correlate with the altered abundance and distribution of a number of chromatin modifications, all of which can be corrected by disabling components of the endogenous small RNA pathway, suggesting that AMPK regulates germ cell integrity by targeting an RNA interference (RNAi)-like pathway during dauer. The expression of AMPK in somatic cells restores all the germline defects, potentially through the transmission of small RNAs. Our findings place AMPK at a pivotal position linking energy stress detected in the soma to a consequent endogenous small RNA–mediated adaptation in germline gene expression, thereby challenging the “permeability" of the Weismann barrier. When energy stress triggers dauer formation in nematodes, the cellular energy sensor AMPK genetically interacts with a small RNA pathway to mediate appropriate chromatin modifications and gene expression to regulate germline stem cell quiescence and integrity.
Collapse
Affiliation(s)
- Pratik Kadekar
- Department of Biology, McGill University, Montreal, Quebec, Canada
| | - Richard Roy
- Department of Biology, McGill University, Montreal, Quebec, Canada
- * E-mail:
| |
Collapse
|
13
|
Li Y, Maine EM. The balance of poly(U) polymerase activity ensures germline identity, survival and development in Caenorhabditis elegans. Development 2018; 145:145/19/dev165944. [PMID: 30305273 DOI: 10.1242/dev.165944] [Citation(s) in RCA: 5] [Impact Index Per Article: 0.8] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 03/23/2018] [Accepted: 08/29/2018] [Indexed: 12/21/2022]
Abstract
Poly(U) polymerases (PUPs) catalyze 3' uridylation of mRNAs and small RNAs, a modification often correlating with decreased RNA stability. We have investigated the importance of three proteins with in vitro PUP activity, PUP-1/CDE-1, PUP-2 and PUP-3, in C. elegans germline development. Genetic analysis indicates that PUP-1/CDE-1 and PUP-2 are developmentally redundant under conditions of temperature stress during which they ensure germline viability and development. Multiple lines of evidence indicate that pup-1/-2 double mutant germ cells fail to maintain their identity as distinct from soma. Consistent with phenotypic data, PUP-1 and PUP-2 are expressed in embryonic germ cell precursors and throughout germline development. The developmental importance of PUP activity is presumably in regulating gene expression as both a direct and indirect consequence of modifying target RNAs. PUP-3 is significantly overexpressed in the pup-1/-2 germline, and loss of pup-3 function partially suppresses pup-1/-2 germline defects. We conclude that one major function of PUP-1/-2 is to limit PUP-3 expression. Overall, the balance of PUP-1, PUP-2 and PUP-3 activities appears to ensure proper germline development.
Collapse
Affiliation(s)
- Yini Li
- Department of Biology, Syracuse University, Syracuse, NY 13244, USA
| | - Eleanor M Maine
- Department of Biology, Syracuse University, Syracuse, NY 13244, USA
| |
Collapse
|
14
|
Labaude S, Griffin CT. Transmission Success of Entomopathogenic Nematodes Used in Pest Control. INSECTS 2018; 9:insects9020072. [PMID: 29925806 PMCID: PMC6023359 DOI: 10.3390/insects9020072] [Citation(s) in RCA: 36] [Impact Index Per Article: 6.0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 05/24/2018] [Revised: 06/15/2018] [Accepted: 06/18/2018] [Indexed: 11/16/2022]
Abstract
Entomopathogenic nematodes from the two genera Steinernema and Heterorhabditis are widely used as biological agents against various insect pests and represent a promising alternative to replace pesticides. Efficacy and biocontrol success can be enhanced through improved understanding of their biology and ecology. Many endogenous and environmental factors influence the survival of nematodes following application, as well as their transmission success to the target species. The aim of this paper is to give an overview of the major topics currently considered to affect transmission success of these biological control agents, including interactions with insects, plants and other members of the soil biota including conspecifics.
Collapse
Affiliation(s)
- Sophie Labaude
- Department of Biology, Maynooth University, W23 A023 Maynooth, Co. Kildare, Ireland.
| | - Christine T Griffin
- Department of Biology, Maynooth University, W23 A023 Maynooth, Co. Kildare, Ireland.
| |
Collapse
|