Academia Sinica Logo

Nematodes are ubiquitous in soil and are the most abundant animals on Earth. Some fungi have evolved the ability to prey on nematodes in nutrient-deficient environments. To gain deeper insights into the molecular mechanisms and key processes of nematode predation by nematode-trapping fungi, Associate Research Fellow Yen-Ping Hsueh and her research team at the Institute of Molecular Biology, Academia Sinica utilized transcriptomic analysis and a series of experiments to discovere the key genes and processes of the nematode-trapping fungus at different predation stages. They found that, in response to nematodes, fungal predator initially increased DNA replication and ribosome biogenesis and then secretion of proteins including some trap-enriched proteins was strongly upregulated during trap formation. After capture of the nematodes, fungal predator relies on numerous proteases to digest the prey. This study provides deeper understanding of the critical steps of nematode predation by fungi, laying the foundation for further elucidating the molecular mechanisms of fungal predatory behavior. This study has been published on November 21, 2023 in the journal PLOS Biology.