Heterodera glycines
The Heterodera glycines, or soybean cyst nematode, is the parasitic nematode to the soybean, infecting the plant's roots.
While in the soybean's roots, the nematode goes through cell division to create feeding spots. As the nematode feeds, it swells. A female swells so much that her posterior end bursts out of the root and she becomes large enough to be visible to the naked eye. However, the adult male regains a wormlike shape, and he leaves the root in order to find and fertilize other large females. The female continues to feed as she lays 200 to 400 eggs, forming an egg sac which remains inside her. She then dies and her cuticle of an egg sac hardens forming a cyst, or dormant stage of a microorganism. |