Nematodes in Focus

First animated movie in a series “Nematodes in Focus’: Descent to the microscopic world of a nematode, and watch the development of a worm inside the egg, from one cell to the birth of an infective second stage juvenile.
In our lab one of the systems we study is the sophisticated interaction between the potato cyst nematode (Globodera) and its natural host potato.
Different developmental stages of this nematode were isolated and studied under the microscope. Digital pictures and time-laps recordings were glued together in chronological order to make up this animated movie. The entire embryogenesis, from a fertilized 1-celled egg until the birth of a second stage infective juvenile is shown.

The size of the egg measures approximately 120 µm in length, and 40 µm in width.

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For a plant parasitic nematode to grow and complete its lifecycle it is dependent on successful induction and maintenance of a feeding site inside the plant root. The proteins that are crucial for induction and maintenance of such a feeding site are produced in the esophageal glands of the nematode. Different secretory proteins are produced in either the sub ventral or dorsal gland cell and their expression varies also in time.

The secretory proteins are packed in secretory granules inside the gland cells before they move through the gland cell extensions and accumulate in the ampulla. In the ampulla, the secretory granules release the proteins into the esophageal lumen, from where they are injected through the stylet into the host cell.

The presence or absence of these granules reflects the activity of the gland cell at a certain stage in the parasitic cycle.

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