Authors

D E Cox¹; R Morris¹; M Stevenson¹; N D Warnock¹; A G Maule¹; J J Dalzell¹;  ¹ School of Biological Sciences, Institute for Global Food Security, Queen’s University Belfast.

Discussion

School of Biological Sciences, Institute for Global Food Security, Queen’s University Belfast.

Neuropeptides are enriched and highly conserved across nematode species with diverse life styles.  Intriguingly, these common genetic resources coordinate highly specialised and distinct aspects of behaviour across plant and insect parasitic nematodes, which share a common environmental niche as infective juveniles.  Elucidating the signalling mechanisms underlying the diversity of behaviours which are coordinated by neuropeptides will lend fundamental insight to nematode neurobiology and functional diversity.  Here we present data on the function and localisation of FMRFamide-like peptide 21 across economically important plant parasitic nematodes (PPNs) and entomopathogenic nematodes (EPNs).  Immunocytochemical staining indicates distinct expression patterns within the anterior neuronal system, and RNAi suggests key roles in the coordination of sensory signals into distinct behaviours; chemotaxis in PPNs, and jumping in EPNs.