Thursday, October 2, 2025
Science
No Result
View All Result
  • Login
  • HOME
  • SCIENCE NEWS
  • CONTACT US
  • HOME
  • SCIENCE NEWS
  • CONTACT US
No Result
View All Result
Scienmag
No Result
View All Result
Home Science News Agriculture

Solving antibiotic and pesticide resistance with infectious worms

April 18, 2024
in Agriculture
Reading Time: 3 mins read
0
Niels Groen
66
SHARES
596
VIEWS
Share on FacebookShare on Twitter
ADVERTISEMENT

To study how parasites evolve to break the defenses of their hosts, the National Institutes of Health has granted UC Riverside nematologist Simon “Niels” Groen a $1.9 million Outstanding Investigator Award.

Niels Groen

Credit: Stan Lim/UCR

To study how parasites evolve to break the defenses of their hosts, the National Institutes of Health has granted UC Riverside nematologist Simon “Niels” Groen a $1.9 million Outstanding Investigator Award.

Roundworm parasites infect humans, livestock, and crop plants. Insights into why certain worms can evade host immune protections could help preempt a ticking time bomb: the decreasing effectiveness of pesticides and antibiotics for infections.  
 
Bacterial, fungal, and parasite resistance to drugs and pesticides is making it harder, and sometimes impossible, to treat common infections like pneumonia and tuberculosis in humans and pest infestations in crops. International health officials warn that without urgent action, we are heading toward a future in which minor injuries and infections can kill. Crop and livestock production will also face increasing hurdles.

“When roundworms infect either humans, animals or plants, they start injecting proteins from their saliva into host cells to subvert the immune response,” Groen said. “These processes are pretty similar across hosts, which is why we can study coevolutionary arms races between plants and parasitic worms and make inferences about the evolution of worm infections in people.” 

Over the next five years, Groen will use the funds to conduct a study in two parts. The first part of the project will examine hundreds of tomato and rice plants, both those grown on farms and those growing in the wild. These are not plants artificially bred for immunity, but Groen expects many will have developed defenses against infectious roundworms, also called nematodes. 

“These plants are a natural laboratory in which we can link their genes and chemical characteristics of their roots to their resistance to worm infections,” Groen said. 
 
“We will learn the molecular mechanisms by which plants defend themselves. This includes the production of defensive chemicals, some of which could be harnessed as novel drugs or antibiotics in humans and livestock,” Groen said. “We can then share this information with biomedical researchers and crop breeders.”
 
This aspect of the project will also help increase food security, particularly in parts of Africa and Asia where nematodes pose a problem for farmers. Much research has been done on above-ground insect pests, but less work has been done below ground, where nematode infections attack the most economically important crops. 
 
“Nematodes make up the most devastating threat to soybeans. For rice and tomatoes, nematodes may cause up to 20% loss of yield. That’s a lot of people who don’t get to eat,” Groen said. 

For the second part of the project, the research team will look at the nematode side of the equation. “How do they evolve to break the plants’ resistance?” Groen asked.
 
There is a gene in tomatoes, Mi-1, that surveys the inside of plant cells for incoming attacks. In a way that is not yet fully understood, this gene perceives something about impending nematode infections that triggers an effective immune response. 
 
Mi-1 was discovered in wild tomatoes in the 1940s and has been bred into California processing tomatoes ever since to keep nematodes at bay. Groen explained that this breeding scheme put root-knot nematodes under enormous natural selection pressure to overcome the resistance conferred by the gene. 
 
However, in increasing numbers, farmers are now finding nematodes in their supposedly resistant tomato crops. “We don’t understand how they broke the resistance. Is there one way, or multiple ways they were able to do this? We will try to identify how many ways there are to skin a cat, from a nematode’s perspective,” Groen said. 
 
Thanks to UC Extension specialists, Groen’s team will be able to compare the genes of worms collected before resistance breaking became more common, as well as ones that have been able to squirm past the plant’s immunity barriers. 
 
One hypothesis is that when the nematode enters the plant, it injects proteins with its saliva that have different targets in the host cell. When Mi-1, floating around in the cell, comes across one of these nematode proteins, it triggers an immune response that kills the worm. However, if the worm no longer injects that protein, then Mi-1 doesn’t know the invader has arrived. 
 
There are receptor proteins like Mi-1 that have evolved similarly in humans that survey cells for incoming attacks, as well as additional molecular processes that resemble one another in humans and plants. However, given ethical and logistical considerations with studying infections in humans, it makes sense to begin this research with plants and nematodes.
 
“The worms are only one model system to look at resistance breaking. But they may yet help us find new solutions to pesticide and antibiotic resistance,” Groen said. 



Share26Tweet17
Previous Post

Gold may be key element for cleaner drinking water

Next Post

Invasive species sound off about impending ecosystem changes

Related Posts

blank
Agriculture

Scientists Create Fast, Scalable In Planta Directed Evolution Platform

October 2, 2025
blank
Agriculture

Haya Farmers’ Views on Climate Change Risks in Agriculture

October 2, 2025
blank
Agriculture

Impact of Alperujo Storage Duration on Final Compost Yields

October 2, 2025
blank
Agriculture

Study Reveals Farming’s Environmental Impact Decreasing, But Progress Varies Across England

October 1, 2025
blank
Agriculture

Innovative Edible Coatings Boost Food Security in Produce

October 1, 2025
blank
Agriculture

How Farming Alters Feedback Loops, Threatening Soil

October 1, 2025
Next Post
Invasive species sound off about impending ecosystem changes

Invasive species sound off about impending ecosystem changes

  • Mothers who receive childcare support from maternal grandparents show more parental warmth, finds NTU Singapore study

    Mothers who receive childcare support from maternal grandparents show more parental warmth, finds NTU Singapore study

    27562 shares
    Share 11022 Tweet 6889
  • University of Seville Breaks 120-Year-Old Mystery, Revises a Key Einstein Concept

    970 shares
    Share 388 Tweet 243
  • Bee body mass, pathogens and local climate influence heat tolerance

    646 shares
    Share 258 Tweet 162
  • Researchers record first-ever images and data of a shark experiencing a boat strike

    513 shares
    Share 205 Tweet 128
  • Groundbreaking Clinical Trial Reveals Lubiprostone Enhances Kidney Function

    477 shares
    Share 191 Tweet 119
Science

Embark on a thrilling journey of discovery with Scienmag.com—your ultimate source for cutting-edge breakthroughs. Immerse yourself in a world where curiosity knows no limits and tomorrow’s possibilities become today’s reality!

RECENT NEWS

  • Healthcare Practitioners’ Views on NHI in Sedibeng
  • Advanced Composite Engineering Boosts Sodium-Ion Battery Performance
  • Depression Alters Theta, Alpha in Memory Tasks
  • Validating Persian Experiential Avoidance Scale for Psychological Inflexibility

Categories

  • Agriculture
  • Anthropology
  • Archaeology
  • Athmospheric
  • Biology
  • Blog
  • Bussines
  • Cancer
  • Chemistry
  • Climate
  • Earth Science
  • Marine
  • Mathematics
  • Medicine
  • Pediatry
  • Policy
  • Psychology & Psychiatry
  • Science Education
  • Social Science
  • Space
  • Technology and Engineering

Subscribe to Blog via Email

Success! An email was just sent to confirm your subscription. Please find the email now and click 'Confirm Follow' to start subscribing.

Join 5,186 other subscribers

© 2025 Scienmag - Science Magazine

Welcome Back!

Login to your account below

Forgotten Password?

Retrieve your password

Please enter your username or email address to reset your password.

Log In
No Result
View All Result
  • HOME
  • SCIENCE NEWS
  • CONTACT US

© 2025 Scienmag - Science Magazine