What tiny worm can wait eight years for its favorite food?
By Chelsie Vandaveer
October 3, 2001
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The soybean cyst nematode (Heterodera glycines) is a microscopic creature, a tiny roundworm barely 4 millimeters long. Even when the soybean plant is suffering from a nematode attack, it exhibits symptoms similar to mineral deficiencies or a disease. As people treated fields for other causes of crop failures, the nematode managed to spread itself to many soybean growing
regions of the world.
Cyst nematodes thrive by attaching to the root system of a soybean. Here they feed, sapping the cell contents and the strength from their host. When mature, the male nematode leaves the root and wiggling through moist soil, goes in search of the female.
The female has changed since she attached to the root. She can no longer move; her body now shaped like a lemon. She has been digesting lignin, a plant polymer that is normally only broken down by bacteria. From the lignin her body makes vanillic acid, a pheromone. The vanillic acid is the chemical lure that clues males to her location.
The male nematode dies soon after mating. The female lives long enough to lay half her eggs. The rest remain in her body, she dies, and her body forms a hard shelled cyst to protect these eggs. These cysts provide the means for the dispersal. They can be carried from field to field on the wind, dirty equipment, or in the digestive tracts of blackbirds. The eggs can survive up to eight years until suitable conditions allow hatching.
Farmers have not a clue to the presence of the soybean cyst nematode until the population density is high. This is when the plants begin doing poorly. But once the nematodes are present, the farmer must rotate crops or let the fields go fallow, making sure no plants are present that enable the nematode remain. However, the nematodes can subsist on a number of weeds, waiting until their favorite host is again present.
The University of Nebraska-Lincoln has a photograph of the soybean cyst nematode. To view the white lemon-shaped females infesting the roots of a soybean, click on the link:
http://nematode.unl.edu/scn/scnisuf4.jpg
Series: | 1 | | 2 |
killerPlants Tendrils: ~~1~~2~~3~~4~~5~~
Suggested Reading:
What are the twelve-hearts of Mississippi? Renfield's Garden - April 3, 2002
Is a T'u-K'u lurking in the garden? Renfield's Garden - May 7, 2003
Why are pillbugs important? Renfield's Garden - July 14, 2004
How does a firefly flash? Renfield's Garden - April 9, 2003
What unseen predator strangles its prey? Renfield's Garden - November 7, 2001
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Gurney's Seed and Nursery -$20 off—>Click here.
Henry Fields Seed and Nursery -$20 off—>Click here.
Spring Hill Nursery -$20 off—>Click here.
Gardens Alive! -$20 off—>Click here.
Michigan Bulb -$20 off—>Click here.
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