Ames, Iowa
February 23, 2005
Iowa State University
has been awarded a grant for $900,000 to investigate the
process by which soybean cyst nematodes infect soybeans.
Soybean cyst nematodes (SCN) cause an estimated $700 million
in annual losses to the U.S. soybean industry and are
regarded as the most serious disease problem in soybean
production. The small, worm-like parasites live underground,
penetrate soybean roots and feed on the plant's fluids.
"Our approach is to unravel the molecular mechanisms
underlying successful SCN parasitism and then to
specifically interfere with these mechanisms," said plant
pathologist Thomas Baum, who is the lead researcher on the
project. "After understanding SCN parasitism on a molecular
level, we will be able to devise ways to defend against SCN
attack."
Baum is a member of a research team that has been
investigating the mechanisms SCN use to attack the plant.
Work thus far has found that the nematode injects parasitism
proteins into soybean root cells that change the cells
allowing the parasite to feed.
The research team includes Dan Nettleton, statistics, and
researchers at the University of Georgia, North Carolina
State University and the University of Missouri.
The team's experiments have discovered more than 50 of these
parasitism proteins, most of which were previously unknown.
This research project seeks to find out what the proteins do
in the plant's cells.
"We will determine where and when nematode parasitism
proteins are released into soybean tissues, which molecules
they interact with and where exactly they function within
the soybean cell," Baum said. "This knowledge will be the
critical piece of information needed to devise new control
mechanisms against the SCN."
The U.S. Department of Agriculture National Research
Initiative grant is for three years. Baum credited soybean
check-off funding for the previous research that helped
secure the federal research funds.
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