SCN are microscopic parasitic worms that are the leading pathogen of soybeans worldwide, causing hundreds of millions of dollars in damage to crops each year. The discovery was reported in the April 28 issue of the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences . Previously cellulase genes have been identified only in plants and microorganisms such as bacteria and fungi. Davis' principal co-authors on the Proceedings paper are Dr. Thomas Baum of Iowa State University, Dr. Richard Hussey of the University of Georgia, and Drs. Arjen Schots, Geert Smant and Jaap Bakker of Waginingen Agricultural University in The Netherlands.
Soybeans are North Carolina's ninth-largest commodity crop.
SCN infestations can be devastating for farmers, Davis says because they're hard to detect. They're an insidious pathogen. Only if their population is incredibly high will you see yellow, stunted plants. Often, you see only minor symptoms until the end of the season. Currently, farmers have only two primary options to keep infestations from reaching levels where they can cause economic losses.