Transcriptional profiling of trait deterioration in the insect pathogenic nematode Heterorhabditis bacteriophora

This research investigates the molecular mechanisms of trait deterioration of two experimental lines of entamopathogenic nematodes, an inbred line (L5M) and its original parental line (OHB), created by sub-culturing different experimental lines of the nematode-bacterium complex over 20 passages in insect hosts. These lines differed in their virulence, heat tolerance and fecundity . Transcriptional profiles of the two experimental lines were determined and select differentially expressed genes were validated by quantitative PCR. Samples from four biological replicates each of the parental strain (OHB) and the laboratory strain (L5M) were hybridized to the custom H. bacteriophora arrays.