From Sequential Gland Replacement to Recurrent Gland Coordination: A Comparative Framework for Subventral and Dorsal Oesophageal Gland Effectors Across Plant-Parasitic Nematode Lifestyles

Abstract

Plant-parasitic nematodes manipulate host tissues through stylet-secreted gene products synthesised principally in two subventral and one dorsal oesophageal gland. Earlier reviews have catalogued effector repertoires, described feeding-site formation, and explained how individual effectors modify host defence, development, and metabolism. However, the temporal coordination of the gland cells themselves has not been comparatively synthesised across parasitic lifestyles. This review therefore advances a gland-centred, lifestyle-dependent framework. In sedentary endoparasites, available evidence supports a pronounced developmental transition: subventral gland products dominate penetration and migration, whereas dorsal gland products become increasingly important during feeding-site initiation and maintenance. Migratory endoparasites repeatedly penetrate, migrate, and feed without establishing permanent feeding cells; their gland activity is consequently predicted to be recurrent and overlapping rather than a one-way replacement. Ectoparasites likewise require behaviour-dependent coordination during repeated probing and external feeding, although direct gland localisation evidence remains limited. We integrate gland origin, secretion chemistry, infection stage, and parasitic behaviour across root-knot, cyst, citrus, false root-knot, lesion, burrowing, and ectoparasitic nematodes. The synthesis distinguishes experimentally demonstrated gland localisation from evidence-weighted inference and formulates testable predictions for comparative gland transcriptomics, spatial expression, and functional silencing. This framework also identifies gland activation, secretion, and stage-critical products as targets for RNA interference, genome editing, resistance breeding, and sustainable nematode management. The principal novelty is therefore not another catalogue of nematode effectors, but a comparative model explaining when and why subventral and dorsal glands exchange, retain, or alternate their functions across contrasting parasitic lifestyles.