Transcriptomics data-driven metabolic modelling of nematodes for biocontrol of agricultural, domestic, and veterinary pests
Creators: name: Dahale, Sonal
Publisher: name: University of Surrey
Year: 2023

description: Agricultural pests such as slugs are very damaging to plants, leading to the loss of tons of crops every
description: year. Looking at the long-lasting detrimental effect of chemical pesticide, biological control methods
description: which involve the use of pests’ natural parasites are gaining popularity. Parasitic nematode of
description: terrestrial gastropods and entomopathogenic nematodes are groups of parasitic nematodes which
description: are known to infect a large number of gastropods and insects respectively and are used against many
description: agricultural and horticultural pests.<br>
description: <br>
description: The aim of this work is to identify and evaluate the metabolic capabilities of Phasmarhabditis
description: californica, a lethal parasite of terrestrial gastropods (slugs) to improve its industrial scale production.
description: As a starting point, Steinernema feltiae, a well-curated, industrially established nematode, was
description: analysed to identify its metabolic characteristics via a systematic study.
description: To identify the metabolic capabilities of S. feltiae and P. californica, an integrated approach was
description: employed by using gene expression data from Infective Juvenile and Young adult as an input to
description: reconstruct Genome-Scale Metabolic Networks (GEMs) of both developmental stages. For S. feltiae
description: previously published transcriptomics data was used while for P. californica, a life stage specific
description: transcriptome was generated and analysed. Accurate descriptions of metabolic states can be achieved
description: by integrating transcriptomics data into the GEMs.<br>
description: <br>
description: Flux balance analysis (FBA) was performed to check the connectivity patterns of the metabolic
description: network and analyse the response to different conditions affecting their metabolism and physiology,
description: such as varying oxygen, amino acids, and cofactor availability. Simulations revealed that both parasitic
description: nematodes are auxotrophic for amino acids like histidine, leucine, tryptophan, and phenylalanine. It
description: was also identified that in oxygen limiting conditions, Infective Juvenile switches its main source of
description: energy from lipids to carbohydrates, while Young Adults fail to survive in anaerobic conditions. These
description: results are in good agreement with (and explain) empirical observations in production processes and
description: could only be achieved due to integration of life-stage specific gene expression profiles with metabolic
description: models.<br>
description: <br>
description: The results obtained from transcriptomics data driven metabolic modelling of Young Adult and
description: Infective Juvenile stages confirm that these approaches reproduce the experimental results to a
description: certain extent and thus can be employed further for generation of hypotheses and minimization of
description: the efforts required for devising wet lab experiments in different physiological conditions. The results
description: could help in formulating optimized growth media and conditions for improved industrial production.<br>