Steinernema nematodes as an emerging genetic model to study microbial symbiosis

The associations between nematodes of Steinernema spp. and their mutualistic bacteria in the genus Xenorhabdus have been established as models and have great potential for agriculture. Our RNA-seq experiment revealed that nematodes significantly modulated their transcriptomes when exposed to symbiotic bacteria. To investigate the function of conserved and unique genes in Steinernema, we developed genetic tools. I will discuss our current study of a conserved gene in S. hermaphroditum, Sh-daf-22, which showed previously unexplored functions in symbiosis. Since Sh-daf-22 is significant in regulating nematode metabolomics, our study will potentially reveal novel pathways in host-microbe chemical signaling.