Arabidopsis thaliana as a suitable model host for research on interactions between plant and foliar nematodes, parasites of plant shoot

The rice white tip nematode (RWTN), Aphelenchoides besseyi and the chrysanthemum foliar nematode (CFN), Aphelenchoides ritzemabosi are migratory plant parasitic nematodes that infect the aboveground parts of plants. In this research, Arabidopsis thaliana was infected by RWTN and CFN under indoor aseptic cultivation, and the nematodes caused recognizable symptoms in the leaves. Furthermore, RWTN and CFN completed their life cycles and proliferated. Therefore, A. thaliana was identified as a new host of RWTN and CFN. The optimum inoculum concentration for RWTN and CFN was 100 nematodes/plantlet, and the optimum inoculum times were 21 and 24 days, respectively. For different RWTN populations, the pathogenicity and reproduction rates were different in the A. thaliana Col-0 ecotype and were positively correlated. The optimum A. thaliana ecotypes were Col-0 and WS, which were the most susceptible to RWTN and CFN, respectively. Additionally, RWTN was ectoparasitic and CFN was ecto- and endoparasitic in A. thaliana. The RWTN and CFN migrated from inoculated leaves to the entire plantlet, and the number of nematodes in different parts of A. thaliana was not correlated with distance from the inoculum point. This is a detailed study of the behavior and infection process of foliar nematodes on A. thaliana.