A decline in transcript abundance for <it>Heterodera glycines </it>homologs of <it>Caenorhabditis elegans uncoordinated </it>genes accompanies its sedentary parasitic phase

• Main Authors: Overall Christopher C, Alkharouf Nadim W, Martins Veronica E, Klink Vincent P, MacDonald Margaret H, Matthews Benjamin F
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Published: BMC 2007-04-01
• Series: BMC Developmental Biology
• Online Access: http://www.biomedcentral.com/1471-213X/7/35

<p>Abstract</p> <p>Background</p> <p><it>Heterodera glycines </it>(soybean cyst nematode [SCN]), the major pathogen of <it>Glycine max </it>(soybean), undergoes muscle degradation (sarcopenia) as it becomes sedentary inside the root. Many genes encoding muscular and neuromuscular components belong to the <it>uncoordinated </it>(<it>unc</it>) family of genes originally identified in <it>Caenorhabditis elegans</it>. Previously, we reported a substantial decrease in transcript abundance for <it>Hg-unc-87</it>, the <it>H. glycines </it>homolog of <it>unc-87 </it>(calponin) during the adult sedentary phase of SCN. These observations implied that changes in the expression of specific muscle genes occurred during sarcopenia.</p> <p>Results</p> <p>We developed a bioinformatics database that compares expressed sequence tag (est) and genomic data of <it>C. elegans </it>and <it>H. glycines </it>(CeHg database). We identify <it>H. glycines </it>homologs of <it>C. elegans unc </it>genes whose protein products are involved in muscle composition and regulation. RT-PCR reveals the transcript abundance of <it>H. glycines unc </it>homologs at mobile and sedentary stages of its lifecycle. A prominent reduction in transcript abundance occurs in samples from sedentary nematodes for homologs of actin, <it>unc-60B </it>(cofilin), <it>unc-89</it>, <it>unc-15 </it>(paromyosin), <it>unc-27 </it>(troponin I), <it>unc-54 </it>(myosin), and the potassium channel <it>unc-110 </it>(<it>twk-18</it>). Less reduction is observed for the focal adhesion complex gene <it>Hg-unc-97</it>.</p> <p>Conclusion</p> <p>The CeHg bioinformatics database is shown to be useful in identifying homologs of genes whose protein products perform roles in specific aspects of <it>H. glycines </it>muscle biology. Our bioinformatics comparison of <it>C. elegans </it>and <it>H. glycines </it>genomic data and our <it>Hg</it>-<it>unc-87 </it>expression experiments demonstrate that the transcript abundance of specific <it>H. glycines </it>homologs of muscle gene decreases as the nematode becomes sedentary inside the root during its parasitic feeding stages.</p>