Project description:In order to polish a long-read genome assembly, short-read illumina data was obtained from Heterodera schachtii cysts (Woensdrecht population from IRS, the Netherlands). Cysts where obtained from infected plant material. Nematodes were cleaned using a sucrose gradient centrifugation step. Thereafter DNA was extracted and used for library preparation and sequencing by Illumina NextSeq500.
Project description:Plant-parastic nematodes cause substantial crop losses worldwide. The sedentary endoparasite nematode Heterodera schachtii induces specialized feeding structures in host roots. The molecular mechanisms underlying feeding structure initiation and development remain poorly understood. High-resolution, spatially resolved transcriptomics is required to study localized gene expression patterns underlying feeding structure formation. Here, we introduce RNA tomography for plants, a powerful untargeted spatial transcriptomics technology that allows studying gene expression at cellular resolutions. We applied RNA tomography to Arabidopsis thaliana roots infected with H. schachtii at 1 and 2 days post inoculation. Our findings provide novel insights into early nematode parasitism.