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Cannabis flower crude extracts as belowground infochemicals shaping the chemotactic responses of parasitic nematodes

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Abstract

The widespread use of synthetic pesticides has raised concerns about their impacts on soil biodiversity and ecosystem functioning, increasing interest in plant-derived compounds as environmentally compatible alternatives. Cannabis sativa L. produces a diverse array of secondary metabolites, including cannabinoids and terpenes, which may act as chemical cues in belowground ecological interactions. This study examined the chemotactic responses of five nematode species – Heterorhabditis bacteriophora (Poinar), Steinernema carpocapsae (Weiser), Steinernema feltiae (Filipjev), Oscheius myriophilus (Poinar), and Phasmarhabditis papillosa (Schneider)— to various concentrations of crude flower extracts of C. sativa. Chemotaxis assays were conducted using an agar-based system, and nematode responses were quantified as overall motility and Chemotaxis Index (CI). Cannabinoid and terpene profiles were determined by HPLC–UV/DAD and GC–MS. Nematode species identity and extract concentration were the primary factors influencing motility and chemotactic behaviour, whereas chemotype extract identity had a minor effect. H. bacteriophora, S. feltiae, and P. papillosa showed positive chemotactic responses (higher CI values) in a species- and concentration-dependent manner, whereas S. carpocapsae and O. myriophilus exhibited mostly neutral responses. Chemotactic behaviour was strongly species-specific and concentration-dependent, with extract identity playing a minor role.

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Data availability

The datasets used and/or analysed during the current study are available from the corresponding author on reasonable request.

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Acknowledgements

The authors gratefully acknowledge Jaka Rupnik and Lea Lukič for their valuable technical assistance during plant cultivation, sample preparation and laboratory analyses.

Funding

This research was supported by the Slovenian Research Agency through project J4-50135 and research programmes P4-0431 and P4-0077. The field experiment was conducted at the Laboratory Field, supported by the infrastructural centre IC RRC-AG (IO-0022-0481-001). Additional funding was provided through the Professional Tasks from the Field of Plant Protection programme, financed by the Ministry of Agriculture, Forestry and Food of the Republic of Slovenia (Phytosanitary Administration).

Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Biotechnical Faculty, Department of Agronomy, University of Ljubljana, Jamnikarjeva 101, 1000, Ljubljana, Slovenia

    Žiga Laznik, Stanislav Trdan, Luka Bitežnik & Marko Flajšman

  2. Faculty of Health Sciences, University of Ljubljana, Zdravstvena pot 5, Ljubljana, Slovenia

    Roman Štukelj

Authors

  1. Žiga Laznik
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  2. Stanislav Trdan
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  3. Luka Bitežnik
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  4. Roman Štukelj
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Contributions

Ž.L.: conceptualization, data curation, formal analysis, funding acquisition, investigation, methodology, project administration, resources, visualization, writing – original draft preparation, writing – review and editing. S.T.: formal analysis, validation, writing – review and editing. L.B.: data curation, investigation, visualization. R.Š.: data curation, formal analysis, investigation, methodology, visualization. M.F.: conceptualization, funding acquisition, methodology, project administration, resources, supervision, visualization, writing – original draft preparation, writing – review and editing. All the authors approved the final version of the manuscript. All the authors are accountable for all aspects of the work.

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Correspondence to
Marko Flajšman.

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Laznik, Ž., Trdan, S., Bitežnik, L. et al. Cannabis flower crude extracts as belowground infochemicals shaping the chemotactic responses of parasitic nematodes.
Sci Rep (2026). https://doi.org/10.1038/s41598-026-49877-2

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/s41598-026-49877-2

Keywords


  • Cannabis sativa
  • Chemotaxis
  • Entomopathogenic nematodes
  • Slug parasitic nematodes
  • Chemotype
  • Crude cannabis extracts

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