Agricultural scientists are rethinking their battle plans against plant parasites that cause billions of dollars in annual yield losses for American farmers. 

Chemical nematicides, soil treatments and biological controls have had mixed success against the soybean cyst nematode, and many potential solutions carry environmental or economic limitations.

Host resistance — breeding soybean varieties that can withstand infection — has been the most effective and environmentally friendly management tool, but its usefulness is declining. Asia Kud, an assistant professor of nematology in the department of entomology and plant pathology for the Arkansas Agricultural Experiment Station, the research arm of the University of Arkansas Division of Agriculture, Kud was awarded a $298,913 grant from the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s National Institute of Food and Agriculture to continue researching a strategy to stop these pest nematodes from feeding and reproducing by interfering feeding sites they create with proteins called effectors.

Scientists from the Department of Microbiology of the University of Malaga, also members of the Institute of Subtropical and Mediterranean Horticulture ‘La Mayora’ (IHSM), have discovered a hitherto unknown mechanism that allows the bacterium Bacillus cereus, which is responsible for food poisoning and human infections, to protect itself against antibiotics and adverse conditions.