TXK and Nematoda infectious disease: In tobacco, a CDPK protein can trigger plant defense via signaling upon virus attack (Romeis et al., 2000), and in Arabidopsis, mutation of a receptor-like protein kinase (RLK) gene, RPK2, results in a decrease in both nematode infection and syncytium size in the rpk2 mutant (Replogle et al., 2013).