Reproductive Toxicity of Furfural Acetone in Meloidogyne incognita and Caenorhabditis elegans

Abstract

Furfural acetone (FAc) is a promising alternative to currently available nematicides, and it exhibits equivalent control efficiency on root-knot nematodes with avermectin in fields. However, its effect on the reproduction of root-knot nematode is poorly understood. In this study, the natural metabolite FAc was found to exhibit reproductive toxicity on Meloidogyne incognita and Caenorhabditis elegans. The number of germ cells of C. elegans was observed to decrease after exposure to FAc, with a reduction of 59.9% at a dose of 200 mg/L. FAc in various concentrations induced the germ-cell apoptosis of C. elegans, with an increase over six-fold in the number of apoptotic germ cells at 200 mg/L. These findings suggested that FAc decreased the brood size of nematode by inducing germ-cell apoptosis. Moreover, FAc-induced germ-cell apoptosis was suppressed by the mutation of gene hus-1, clk-2, cep-1, egl-1, ced-3, ced-4, or ced-9. The expression of genes spo-11, cep-1, and egl-1 in C. elegans was increased significantly after FAc treatment. Taken together, these results indicate that nematode exposure to FAc might inflict DNA damage through protein SPO-11, activate CEP-1 and EGL-1, and induce the core apoptosis pathway to cause germ-cell apoptosis, resulting in decreased brood size of C. elegans.

Sublethal Toxicity of Fluorine-Free Firefighting Foams in Soil Invertebrate Caenorhabditis elegans

“…No such coincidence was observed in the F7 treatment group, suggesting that F7 might have a different toxicity mechanism. Several mechanisms underlying reproductive toxicity in C. elegans have been reported, including disruption of the collagen biosynthetic pathway, induction of increased autophagy and reactive oxygen species, and impaired and/or retarded gonad development and decreased brood size caused by germ cell apoptosis, germ cell DNA damage, and oxidative stress. − Further toxicological and molecular studies are needed to reveal the mechanisms underlying the reproductive toxicity of F-free formulations in C. elegans , particularly for F2 and F7.…”

Isolation and Characterization of Novel Biological Control Agent Clostridium beijerinckii against Meloidogyne incognita

“…Many PGPR strains have been used effectively to treat RKNs [ 47 ]. Effective and safe RKN disease control techniques are desperately needed in greenhouses [ 48 , 49 ]. C. beijerinckii Sneb518 isolates were selected for further study from 712 bacterial strains found to be effective against RKNs.…”

Multiple Receptors Contribute to the Attractive Response of Caenorhabditis elegans to Pathogenic Bacteria

“…B. xylophilus was maintained at 28°C on potato dextrose agar (PDA) medium and fed with Botrytis cinerea . C. elegans and B. xylophilus were synchronized as previously described ( 46 ), and the synchronized nematodes were used in subsequent experiments. M. incognita was maintained on the roots of tomato ( Solanum lycopersicum ) and grown in a greenhouse at 25°C ± 1°C.…”