Affiliations 

  • 1 Department of Plant & Soil Science, Texas Tech University, 2802, 15th street, Lubbock, TX, 79409, USA. krishan.m.rai@ttu.edu
  • 2 Department of Plant & Soil Science, Texas Tech University, 2802, 15th street, Lubbock, TX, 79409, USA. vimal-kumar.balasubramanian@ttu.edu
  • 3 Department of Plant & Soil Science, Texas Tech University, 2802, 15th street, Lubbock, TX, 79409, USA. cassie.welker@ttu.edu
  • 4 Department of Plant & Soil Science, Texas Tech University, 2802, 15th street, Lubbock, TX, 79409, USA. mingxiong.pang@ttu.edu
  • 5 Department of Plant & Soil Science, Texas Tech University, 2802, 15th street, Lubbock, TX, 79409, USA. meimei@sbc.org.my
  • 6 Department of Plant & Soil Science, Texas Tech University, 2802, 15th street, Lubbock, TX, 79409, USA. venugopal.mendu@ttu.edu
BMC Plant Biol, 2015;15:187.
PMID: 26232118 DOI: 10.1186/s12870-015-0576-4

Abstract

The plant cell wall serves as a primary barrier against pathogen invasion. The success of a plant pathogen largely depends on its ability to overcome this barrier. During the infection process, plant parasitic nematodes secrete cell wall degrading enzymes (CWDEs) apart from piercing with their stylet, a sharp and hard mouthpart used for successful infection. CWDEs typically consist of cellulases, hemicellulases, and pectinases, which help the nematode to infect and establish the feeding structure or form a cyst. The study of nematode cell wall degrading enzymes not only enhance our understanding of the interaction between nematodes and their host, but also provides information on a novel source of enzymes for their potential use in biomass based biofuel/bioproduct industries. Although there is comprehensive information available on genome wide analysis of CWDEs for bacteria, fungi, termites and plants, but no comprehensive information available for plant pathogenic nematodes. Herein we have performed a genome wide analysis of CWDEs from the genome sequenced phyto pathogenic nematode species and developed a comprehensive publicly available database.

* Title and MeSH Headings from MEDLINE®/PubMed®, a database of the U.S. National Library of Medicine.