Society of Nematologists

We are excited to announce that the application window for the new Richard Sikora Travel Award is now open! This travel award is for SON members grad students and/or postdocs presenting about Integrated Nematode Management. Scan the QR code for details or here: www.nematologists.org/SON2025-Trav...

The much smaller male may live inside the vagina and uterus of the female which can be five times longer than the male. Usually, only one male lives in the female gonad, but as many as five males have been observed in one female!

#WormFactWednesday is arriving early this week and we're talking about Trichosomoides crassicauda and endoparasitic males!

Trichosomoides crassicauda, a parasite that lives in the urinary bladder of rats, especially Epimys norvegicus, has an unusual relationship between the sexes.

This week the Career Development workshop organized by the SON Industry & Grad-student committees provided career path insights to SON members around the world, supporting the society’s vision to advance the science of nematology. Like this post if you'd like another workshop!

A review of the epigenetic mechanisms present in nematode-plant interactions can be found here: pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/32413274/

Although they are not always beneficial, these responses usually last only for a few generations. Similar epigenetic effects can occur from RNA that can be taken up from the environment and passed on from one organism to another for several additional generations, at least four.

#WormFactWednesday this week is all about how epigenetics can impact inheritance and gene expression in nematodes!

The environment can alter gene expression from minor and reversible short-term changes to the DNA of the sperm and eggs.

You can get more information about nematode lethargus at these links:

www.sciencedirect.com/science/arti...

www.nature.com/articles/nat...

or at the link in our bio!

Because it is similar to sleep in other animals as demonstrated by many behavioral and molecular characteristics such as periods of frequently interrupted movements, this quiescence is considered as a state of sleep in nematodes.

#WormFactWednesday is all about two things we love - sleep & nematodes!

Most nematodes including Caenorhabditis elegans molt four times producing four juvenile stages before becoming an adult. Lethargus is a period of quiescence between the juvenile stages.

Very exciting Career Development workshop provided by the SON Industry & Student committees!

Registration & event information can be found here: nematologists.org/event-6040380

Hope to see you there!

In honor of the International Day of Women and Girls in Science on #february11 we would like to recognize all of the incredible women who have made contributions throughout the history of Nematology. Thank you because we wouldn't be here without you!

This image is from 1988, when she was awarded Honorary Membership in the Florida State Horticultural Society.

#Card6

She had extensive research on the efficient use of irrigation, control of soil-borne diseases, and management of insects. Amegda received the Presidential Award from the Organization of Tropical American Nematologists where she served in various roles."

This week our #WormFactWednesday is dedicated to one of the Pioneers of Nematode Management, Amegda Jack Overman (1920 - 2011).

"An outstanding agriculturist, she developed fumigation practices that allowed the reuse of old land for growing vegetables and ornamentals.

Starting date is ideally March 15, 2025 and position is funded until September 30, 2026.

Information about the position and Kantor lab can be found at the link in bio!

Exciting postdoc opportunity to work on the beech leaf nematode with Dr. Kantor at Penn State!

The role will include designing, conducting, and analyzing a comparative greenhouse host-range test of beech leaf nematode, Litylenchus crenatae spp. mccanii (Lcm), on native tree species.

Zhang et al. 2020 details many of the relationships present between nematodes and fungi and can be found here pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC...

#Card26

The two organisms interact synergistically so that the resulting disease is more severe than the simple additive effect of each organism. The most common disease complexes involve the root-knot, cyst, lesion, reniform, dagger, and needle nematodes.

The 1st #WormFactWednesday of February is all about the synergistic interactions of nematodes and fungus!

Nematode-fungus disease interactions have been known since the descriptions of the genus Meloidogyne by Emilio Goeldi and M. arenaria by Atkinson, both in 1892.

Less than 1 week left to apply for this exciting opportunity to work with nematodes in the Sunshine State!! 🐊 Don't miss out!

Here you can see an example of different giant cells from the paper "Host-specific signatures of the cell wall changes induced by the plant parasitic nematode, Meloidogyne incognita" (Bozbuga et al. 2018)

www.nature.com/articles/s41...

They interfere with the uptake of water and nutrients, block their transport, and form sinks that utilize photosynthesis that are diverted away from fruit to the female root-knot nematode."

#WormFactWednesday is coming in hot this week with a fact about the metabolic sinks root-knot nematodes create with their feeding sites!

"The giant cells of root-knot nematodes are hypermetabolic feeding sites that are located in the middle of the vascular cylinder within the roots.

An incredible example of worm-stars can be seen in Antunes et al. 2015 www.researchgate.net/publication/...

While the posterior portion remains caught, the anterior "half-worm" moves away and remains viable for several days. During this timeframe, a few of the self-fertile eggs have enough time to develop and form new juveniles that can continue the next generation."

This #WormFactWednesday is all about nematode defense through autonomy with card #33!

"Worm-stars, produced from numerous juvenile worms stuck together at their tails by Microbacterium nematophilum, can escape by splitting in half (autonomy).

Exciting job opportunity to be a Nematology Research Scientist at the Division of Plant Industry in Gainesville, Florida! 🐊

Application closes Sunday February 9, 2025 and more information about the position can be found here: jobs.myflorida.com/job/GAINESVI...

There are many species of Nepovirus with some examples being Cherry leaf roll virus, Potato virus U, Raspberry ringspot virus, Tobacco ringspot virus, and Tomato ringspot virus (image).

There are 3 species of Tobravirus - Pea early-browning virus (left), Pepper ringspot virus, and Tobacco rattle virus (right).