Development and maintenance of terminal sink tissues with an emphasis on nematode-induced feeding sites

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Plant-parasitic sedentary nematodes withdraw nutrients from their hosts from highly specialized feeding structures. In the case of cyst nematodes these feeding sites develop when cells fuse with adjacent cells forming a syncytium. The feeding sites of root knot nematodes consist of individual giant cells. Both feeding structures develop differently but are functionally homologous. The topic of this proposal is to establish if the loading of nutrients into these feeding sites occurs apoplasmically through transporter-mediated processes or symplasmically through plasmodesmata. Tissue types involved in formation and maintenance of the feeding site types will be identified. The expression of different nematode regulated genes and proteins will be compared in both feeding site types. The regulation and the trafficking of a nematode-induced amino acid transporter will be examined. The planned experiments will help to understand how terminal sink tissues in plants are formed, maintained and supplied with nutrients.