An international team of 27 laboratories said on Sunday they had laid bare
the genetic code of a tiny parasite responsible for billions of dollars in
crop losses each year.
The worm, known as the root-knot nematode (Meloidogyne incognita), infests
plant roots leaving them gnarled.

More than 3,000 crop types are affected, especially coffee, cotton,
tomatoes, melons and cucumbers.

Sequencing the worm's genome could open the way to smarter, less toxic
pesticides and other greener methods to curb the little menace, the
researchers.

The analysis, led by Pierre Abad of the France's National Institute for
Agricultural Research (INRA), appears in the specialist journal Nature
Biotechnology.

The work is based largely on the sequencing of Caenorhabditis elegans, a
non-parasite relative, that is a lab favourite for gene scientists.

Parasite roundworms, which include M. incognita, cost farmers around 100
billion euros (157 billion dollars) annually, and the chemicals used to
control are blamed for increasing environmental damage.
www.checkbiotech.org