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Every two years the European Society for Nematology hold their symposium where fellow researchers come together to share their most recent findings in everything nematode-related, and thanks to the generous support of the BSPP I was able to attend and participate in the meeting. Cordoba provided a culture-rich backdrop for a week of interesting scientific talks and discussions. The conference kicked off with several plenary talks from well renowned researchers talking about research ranging from C. elegans chemotaxis and epigenetics, to plant resistance to nematode pests. Such a varied list of plenary speakers throughout the week helped to expand my knowledge base and consider methods/ideas that were previously unknown to me. A standout presentation was by Coleen Murphy who spoke about her labs discovery that the nematode C. elegans can ‘read’ small RNAs of their ingested bacteria and that this then directs their movement. For example if they read the small RNA of a pathogenic bacteria then this directs an avoidance response. She showed how this information can be transmitted transgenerationally and that this mechanism is conserved in ‘wild’ bacteria and ‘wild’ C. elegans strains. It was very useful to see the breadth of experiments and methods that C. elegans researchers can carry out and how this can lead to new data that can support existing knowledge.
Whilst C. elegans can offer a great model to study the core mechanisms of nematodes, my main scientific interests centre on plant-parasitic nematodes. Every crop is a host for at least one plant-parasitic nematode, of which there are over 4,100 species. Therefore, these pests are highly damaging for global agriculture and food security. There were two standout plant nematode-related presentations that I particularly enjoyed, which relate to the C. elegans presentation but with our plant parasites. Firstly, Tina Kyndt presented how plants may be ‘vaccinated’ against parasitic nematodes and how this may span generations. They demonstrated the existence of intergenerational resistance in rice, whereby the progeny of infected rice have elevated resistance towards the same parasite. Signalling through the ethylene pathway is important for such resistance and shows just how complex resistance can be, especially when considering future generations. Secondly, I enjoyed the talk by Ange Dussutour, who is characterising the role of small non-coding RNAs in the nematode-plant interaction. In particular, they showed the presence of small RNAs from the nematode and targets for these non-coding RNAs within the plant. This adds a fascinating additional level of complexity to what we know about the nematode-plant interaction and how these parasites are able to manipulate host molecular biology.
Whilst at ESN 2024 I presented a poster describing a recent publication that showed the impact of plant parasitic nematode infection on the interaction between mycorrhizal fungi and their host plant. This received attention from both researchers interested in the applied usage of mycorrhiza (e.g. potato production in Europe) as well as nematologists interested in how the nematodes are able to have an effect on plant mutualists. As well as a poster, I presented in ‘Plant nematode interactions and host response (IV)’ about how mycorrhiza may impact the feeding and molecular biology of concurrent plant parasite’s (the opposite view to the poster). I chose to do both a poster and a presentation to make full use of the funds that BSPP had generously provided and this yielded multiple positive interactions and discussions about my data. This will direct my publication plans and provided new collaborations to boost future research.
Dr Chris Bell
University of Leeds
TOP IMAGE: Mezquita-Catedral de Córdoba, which is the Mosque Cathedral in the centre of the city.
