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Plant tolerance is explained by resource-based plant-nematode interactions
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DOI：10.1016/j.mbs.2026.109711.png)
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Abstract
En 中文
Plant-parasitic nematodes are responsible for significant economic losses worldwide, affecting a wide range of crops. They infect and divert resources and impair plant growth. While resistance aims to limit parasite burden, tolerance is the ability of a plant to maintain its yield despite infection, which offers a complementary and potentially more sustainable strategy. Understanding how tolerance arises and operates requires mechanistic insights into host-parasite interactions and the constraints that shape them. In this study, we develop a mathematical model describing the coupled dynamics of plant growth, internal resource allocation, and nematode population processes. The model incorporates key biological mechanisms, including resource-dependent plant development, nematode infection, reproduction and feedbacks between resource limitation and parasitism. We analytically derive the basic reproduction number and identify equilibrium states, including the system extinction, healthy plantation and coexistence. Our analysis shows that coexistence strongly depends on plant resource production, shedding light on conditions under which tolerance can emerge. Numerical simulations further explore how variations in both plant and nematode parameters influence the tolerance over a cropping season. We highlight the dual role of resource production: high production rates not only boost plant growth but also enhance nematode proliferation. There is hence a compromise to be found between favouring bigger and more productive plants, versus limiting yield losses in case of nematode infestation. This compromise is shaped by the nematode virulence and plant quantitative resistance.
Keywords:
Population dynamics
Epidemiological modelling
Plant tolerance
Plant parasites
Stability analysis
Basic reproduction number