| Project Detail |
Plants natural immunity to parasites could protect important crops
Root-knot nematodes (RKNs) are among the most important crop-damaging species in parasitic worms. They attack the roots of nearly every species of higher plants including trees, shrubs, and herbaceous plants and have a worldwide distribution. Harnessing plants innate immunity could provide a pathway to eco-friendly control of RKN infestation. The immune receptor gene Ma keeps some trees safe from a wide number of RKN species. In addition to the classical structure found in genes of the same family in other plant species, Ma displays a long terminal region with repeated domains that may play an important role in immunity. The EU-funded IMMUNE project plans to tease out the molecular mechanisms by which Ma triggers an immune response to RKNs with special attention to this region. |
