Dietary demands of biotrophic nematodes

Some groups of nematodes cause the development of pathologically enlarged cell systems in the root from which they exclusively extract their food.
The beet cyst nematode Heterodera schachtii forms a nutrient cell system in the central cylinder of the root, in which the affected cells fuse to form a syncytium. The syncytium is metabolically hyperactive and extracts nutrients from the root, which form the nutritional basis for the parasitizing nematodes. We investigate the question of which nutrients the nematodes actually absorb from the syncytium and concentrate in particular on water-soluble vitamins of the B group.