Collaborations with scientists in the USA have given insights into bacterial infections of nematodes. Pasteuria penetrans is a bacterium closely related to Bacillus spp. that can suppress root-knot nematodes. The rhamnose cluster operon in some Bacillus spp. contain a collagen-like gene which is hypothesised to be involved in Pasteuria penetrans endospore attachment (red genes have been identified in DNA sequences from Pasteuria) the first stage of the infection process
Dr K G Davies has strong links to Professors Charlie Opperman and David Bird at the Plant Nematode Genetics Group (PNGG), North Carolina State University, Raleigh in a collaborative project to sequence the Pasteuria genome and also to Professor Valerie Williamson (VMW), University of California, Davis, looking at variation in the root-knot nematode's cuticle surface coat.
