423: Roundworm Riders Route Rootworm Resistance

This episode: Helping insect-killing bacterial symbionts of
nematodes evolve resistance to chemicals that major corn pests
use to defend themselves!


Download Episode (10.0 MB, 14.0 minutes)

Show notes:
Microbe of the episode: Listeria virus PSA

Takeaways



Interactions between species and even kingdoms in nature can be
complex and multilayered. This means that when we want to
intervene to cause a particular outcome, there may be multiple
points at which we can act, but the consequences may be hard to
predict.


 


In this study, action was taken to counteract the damage the
Western corn rootworm causes to corn crops, using a tiny
roundworm that attacks the insect pest with deadly bacteria.
The rootworm defends itself by accumulating plant-produced
toxins that inhibit the bacteria. Directed evolution was used
to make the bacteria more resistant, and this led to more
effective killing of the pest.




Journal Paper:
Machado RAR, Thönen L, Arce CCM, Theepan V, Prada F, Wüthrich D,
Robert CAM, Vogiatzaki E, Shi Y-M, Schaeren OP, Notter M,
Bruggmann R, Hapfelmeier S, Bode HB, Erb M. 2020. Engineering
bacterial symbionts of nematodes improves their biocontrol
potential to counter the western corn rootworm. 5. Nat Biotechnol
38:600–608.


Other interesting stories:



Altering pathogenic bacteria to reduce disease with
genome-integrating phage (paper)

Bacteria could inhibit fungus that causes deadly disease of
bananas (paper)




 


Email questions or comments to bacteriofiles at gmail dot
com. Thanks for listening!


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