Figure 4.

Inhibition of PME activity impairs haustorium induction and development. A) Number of haustoria per P. japonicum plant at four time points during treatment with 50 μM ECGC, 100 μM EGCG or water control. Asterisks indicate significance compared to control (Student's t-test, n = 3 replicates). B) Ratio of the percentage of day one (D1) haustoria with a xylem bridge (XB) formed during treatment with 50 or 100 μM EGCG over water at three time points. Asterisks indicate significance compared to control (Student's t-test, n = 3 replicates). C) Images of 7 dpi haustoria formed on water, 50 μM EGCG and 100 μM EGCG. D) Relative gene expression of selected PjPMEs and PjPMEIs at 72 hpi in P. japonicum haustoria treated with 100 μM EGCG, normalised to water. Asterisks indicate significance compared to control (Student's t-test, n = 3 replicates). E) Numbers of haustoria per hairy root transformed with PjPME and PjPMEI overexpression constructs. Non-transgenic hairy roots are marked as “-” and transgenic roots are marked as “+”. Asterisks indicate significance compared to control (Fisher's exact test; n = 2 to 4 replicates, 12 to 53 total roots per sample). F) Number of haustoria per P. japonicum plant at four time points during infection of AtPMEI5OE mutant or Col-0 as control (n = 3 replicates). G) Ratio of the percentage of D1 haustoria with a XB formed during infection of AtPMEI5OE over Col-0 at three time points. Asterisks indicate significance compared to control (Student's t-test, n = 3 replicates). For all panels * for P < 0.05, ** for P < 0.01, bars represent standard deviation.