Klink, V. P., G. W. Lawrence, P. D. Matsye, and K. C. Showmaker. 2010. The application of a developmental genomics approach to study the resistant reaction of soybean to the soybean cyst nematode. Nematropica 40:1-11. The infection of plants by parasitic nematodes is a ubiquitous problem of agriculture. While all plant tissues can be parasitized by plant parasitic nematodes, the root parasites are the most important, economically. Infections are either compatible, resulting in a susceptible reaction or incompatible, resulting in plant resistance to the nematode. During a compatible reaction, nurse cells that the nematode feeds from are stimulated to form. The nematode can successfully complete its life cycle because ample nourishment is available to the nematode from the nurse cell. In contrast, the resistant reaction that leads to nematode mortality is localized to the nurse cell and sometimes the cells directly surrounding the nurse cell. During the resistant reaction the anatomy of the cells fed on by the nematode initially resemble cells undergoing a compatible reaction. However, a variety of cellular changes occur that results in the collapse of the nurse cell leading to nematode mortality. Gene expression analyses point to jasmonic acid being an important signaling event, locally in the syncytium, during the resistant reaction. This review focuses in on cell isolation procedures and genomics tools that have assisted in the analyzing gene expression of these feeding cells as they undergo a resistant reaction in an agricultural model system soybean-soybean cyst nematode.
