Name the nematode that infests and damages tobacco roots. How are transgenic tobacco plants produced to solve this problem?

Explanation

Pest Resistant Plants. A large number of nematodes occur as parasite cause serious diseases in a wide variety of plants and animals including human beings. A nematode, Meloidegye incognitia infects the roots of tobacco plants and causes a great reduction in yield. A novel strategy that was based on the process of RNA interference (RNAI) was adopted to prevent this infection, RNA interference occurs in all eukariotic organisms as a method of cellular defence. It involved blocking of a specific mRNA due to complementary SRNA molecule that binds to and prevent translation of the mRNA. It is called silencing of mRNA. The source of the complementary RNA could be from an infection by viruses having RNA genomes or mobile genetic elements (transposons) that replicate through an RNA intermediate.
Using Agrobacterium vectors, nematode specific genes are introduced into the host plant which produce both sense and anti sense RNA in the host cells. These two RNA.s being complementary to each other, form a dsRNA that initiated RNAi and, therefore, silenced the specific mRNA of the pathogen. As a result the parasite could not survive in a transgenic host expressing specific interfering RNA. The transgenic plant, therefore got itself protected from the parasite.