Nematodes are a ubiquitous life form.
It is likely that all vascular plants serve as hosts for at least one parasitic nematode species. Understanding the basis for the host-parasite interaction is a major goal of my group. Given the striking morphological conservation of nematodes, mechanisms for parasitism might also be conserved cross-phylum. Indeed, plant and animal parasitic nematodes face similar challenges to successful reproduction in their respective hosts. The imminent completion of the C. elegans genome sequencing project enables homologs of genes from parasitic nematodes to be identified and manipulated in this tractable system.