Plant Cell Wall Signaling in the Interaction with Plant-Parasitic Nematodes

Abstract

Plant cell wall signaling, or more generally cell wall performance and integrity control, is thought to play crucial roles in the regulation of plant growth and development in the presence of abiotic and biotic stresses. While, analogous to the well-characterized cell wall integrity response in yeast, the hallmarks of plant cell wall signaling are stress-induced global alterations in the expression of genes related to cell wall biosynthesis and remodeling, its molecular players are only beginning to become defined at the genetic level. Biochemical, molecular, and genetic studies have implicated cell wall signaling with the response to various plant pathogens including fungi and bacteria. Here we speculate how cell wall performance and integrity control might be involved in the infection of roots by sedentary plant-parasitic nematodes. We recapitulate that analogous to various typical cell wall stress scenarios, changes in the expression of cell wall–related genes are a major characteristic of nematode infection.