EPNs Exhibit Repulsion to Prenol in Pluronic Gel Assays

• Main Authors: Tiffany Baiocchi, Chunjie Li, Adler R. Dillman
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Published: MDPI AG 2020-07-01
• Series: Insects
• Subjects: entomopathogenic nematodes; PF127; pluronic gel; chemotaxis
• Online Access: https://www.mdpi.com/2075-4450/11/8/457

Entomopathogenic nematodes (EPNs) are lethal parasites of insects that have become valuable in biological control and as a model system for studying host–parasite interactions, behavioral ecology, neurobiology, and genomics, among other fields. Their ability to locate hosts is paramount to successful infection and host seeking has been extensively studied in many species in the lab. Here, we explored the usefulness of pluronic gel as a medium to assess EPN host seeking in the lab by characterizing the response of <i>Steinernema carpocapsae</i>, <i>S. feltiae</i>, <i>S. glaseri</i>, <i>S. riobrave</i>, <i>Heterorhabditis bacteriophora</i>, and <i>H. indica</i> to the odor prenol. We found that the infective juveniles (IJs) of these species were repelled by prenol in pluronic gel. We then evaluated how storing the IJs of <i>S. carpocapsae</i>, <i>S. feltiae</i>, and <i>S. glaseri</i> for different amounts of time affected their behavioral responses to prenol. The response of <i>S. carpocapsae</i> was significantly affected by the storage time, while the responses of <i>S. feltiae</i> and <i>S. glaseri</i> were unaffected. Our data support the notion that pluronic gel is a useful medium for studying EPN behavior and that the response of <i>S. carpocapsae</i> to informative odors is significantly affected by long-term storage.