CARBOHYDRATE-RECOGNITION DOMAINS ON THE SURFACE OF PHYTOPHAGOUS NEMATODES

Human red blood cells (HRBC) adhered to preparasitic second-stage juve niles (J2) of Heterodera avenae, Heterodera schachtii, Meloidogyne jav anica, Pratylenchus mediterraneus, Rotylenchulus reniformis, and Tylen chulus semipenetrans over the entire nematode body. Binding was conspi cuously confined to the head and tail of Longidorus cohni, Xiphinema b revicolle, and Xiphinema index. Binding was Ca2+ and Mg2+ dependent. I n contrast, HRBC did not adhere to Anguina tritici, Aphelenchoides sub tenius, Ditylenchus dipsaci, M. javanica females, and Panagrellus redi vivus, even in the presence of these cations. Incubation of M. javanic a J2 with fucose, glucose, N-acetylglucosamine, mannose, or trypsin de creased the intensity of subsequent HRBC binding, while galactose and N-acetylgalactosamine increased binding intensity. HRBC binding was di minished when nematodes were pretreated with trypsin and eliminated wh en pretreatments with detergents removed the surface coat. HRBC adhere d to nylon fibers coated with surface coat extracted from M. javanica J2; binding was Ca2+ and Mg2+ dependent and diminished when the nylon fibers were coated with bovine serum albumin or preincubated with fuco se and mannose. These results demonstrate that HRBC adhesion involves carbohydrate moieties of HRBC and corresponding carbohydrate-recogniti on domains (CRD) distributed in the nematode surface coat. To our know ledge this is the first report of a surface CRD in the phylum Nematoda . (C) 1995 Academic Press, Inc.