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Published June 2014 | Published
Journal Article Open

Virulence and oxidative stress response of the pine wood nematode bursa phelenchus xylophilus

Abstract

Bursaphelenchus xylophilus is the causal agent of pine wilt disease and the most devastating plant parasitic nematode attacking coniferous trees (mostly Pinus species) in the world. In the early stages of invasion, this nematode has to manage host defence mechanisms, such as strong oxidative stress. Only successful virulent nematodes are able to resist the basal immune plant counterattack, and further migrate and proliferate in numbers inside of the host tree. Our main objective was to study the oxidative stress tolerance of the virulent/avirulent B. xylophilus isolates and avirulent Bursaphelenchus mucronatus, and understand in which degree this feature is related with their virulence level. For this purpose, we used the most prominent reactive oxygen species H_2O_2 (hydrogen peroxide) as oxidative stress agent to evaluate the tolerance of the virulent/avirulent isolates of B. xylophilus and B. mucronatus, assessing catalase enzymatic activity, H_2O_2 neutralization and relative gene expression of different antioxidant enzymes. In addition, transgenic of Caenorhabditis elegans overexpressing B. xylophilus catalase were constructed and evaluated for survival under oxidative stress conditions. Here we show the correlation between B. xylophilus virulence and oxidative stress resistance; virulent B. xylophilus expressed more antioxidant enzymes and could have more tolerance against oxidative stress than avirulent B. xylophilus and B. mucronatus. Moreover, transgenic C. elegans overexpressing B. xylophilus catalase were able to resist better than wild type C. elegans. Our study suggests that oxidative stress tolerance of B. xylophilus is important to withstand against host plant counter-attack and can be considered a pathogenicity factor.

Additional Information

© 2014 The Society of Nematologists.

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