Arabidopsis thaliana as a susceptible host for studies of Meloidogyne paranaensis and plant interaction

Meloidogyne paranaensis is an important root-knot nematode species for several crops in Brazil, especially coffee. Despite such notoriety, studies with this pathosystem are time and space consuming. Although Arabidopsis thaliana is widely used for genetics, physiological and biotic/abiotic stress studies, no information was found regarding M. paranaensis relationships with this model plant. The objective of this study was to optimize methodologies to study the interactions between M. paranaensis and plants, using A. thaliana as model plant. Columbia-0 (Col-0) ecotype was challenged with M. paranaensis to evaluate the penetration rates and nematode reproduction factor. Besides, nematode initial populations and plant ages for inoculation were tested to evaluate the parasitism, in different evaluation times. Substrate types and ideal number of plants were also evaluated. Once A. thaliana hosts M. paranaensis and showed to be a susceptible and reliable tool for studies with this nematode, the methodology optimization conditions were tested by the screening of 29 ecotypes, and variation on susceptibility among these genotypes was observed, indicating the adequacy of the methodology suggested and genetic variability to this trait. The optimization of the experimental conditions using A. thaliana here reported can provide a range of research lines to reach data faster, besides the possibility of increasing the knowledge of plant-M. paranaensis interactions.