Seminars on Entomopathogenic Nematodes and Multitrophic interactions in the soil

Symposium on Entomopathogenic Nematodes and Multitrophic interactions- nematodeinformation Three researchers including Raquel Campos-Herrera, Claudia Dolinski and Ganpati B. Jagdale have organized a Symposium entitled “Entomopathogenic Nematodes and Multitrophic interactions in the Rhizosphere” at the Society of Nematologists 51^st Annual meeting, which would be held in Savannah, Georgia from August 12^th to 15^th 2012.  In this symposium, four seminar on the following research areas will be presented by different speakers starting at  8.0am on Tuesday August 14, 2012, Marriot Riverfront hotel, Savanna, GA.

Seminar topics and speakers:

1. Multitrophic interactions involving entomopathogenic nematodes applied against pine weevils in a forest ecosystem by Christine T. Griffin, A.M. Dillon, C.D. Harvey and C.D. Williams.
2. Entomophathogenic nematodes: Effects of the soil agroecosystem on biological control potential by David I. Shapiro-Ilan, T.C. Leskey, S.E. Wright, I. Brown, and L. Fall.
3. Interactions among entomopathogenic nematodes and other nematode trophic groups and plants in agroecosystems by Somasekhar Nethi, G.B. Jagdale and P.S. Grewal.
4. Herbivore induced plants volatiles and entomopathogenic nematodes as agents of plant indirect defense by Jared G. Ali, H.T. Alborn, R. Campos-Herrera, F. Kaplan, L.W. Duncan, C. Rodriguez-Saona, A.M. Koppenhöfer, and L.L. Stelinski.

What are Plant-parasitic nematodes?

Nematodes are usually microscopic, thread-like, colorless and non-segmented roundworms without any appendages. There are harmful (e.g., plant- and animal-parasitic) and beneficial (e.g., entomopathogenic) nematodes. Plant-parasitic nematodes generally cause damage to crops and many other types of plants. Although majority of plant-parasitic nematodes are root feeders, they have different types of association with plants. For example, the root-knot (Meloidogyne sp) and cyst (Heterodera sp.) nematodes have endoparasitic association meaning they live and feed within the tissue of roots, tubers, buds, seeds. Nematodes including stuby-root (Trichodorus sp.), dagger (Xiphinema sp), needle (Longidorus sp), ring (Criconemella sp), stunt (Tylenchorhynchus sp), pin (Paratylenchus sp), and spiral (Helicotylenchus sp) have ectoparasitic association meaning they feed externally on roots through their walls. Some of the nematodes like the reniform (Rotylenchulus reniformis) have semi-endoparasitic association meaning these nematodes feed on the roots by penetrating their anterior (head) region into root tissue and leaving their posterior (tail) region remains outside of the root.