Figure 5.

Off-target gene silencing in N. benthamiana by VIGS. A, Comparison of the expression levels of TC381, CK286172, TC10748, CK288691, and β-tubulin in TC381 silenced and nonsilenced N. benthamiana. B, Comparison of the expression levels of TC1146, CK282591, CK287535, CK292351, CK296810, TC8666, and β-tubulin in the N. benthamiana plants silenced with the TRV2∷00 or TRV2∷TC1146 construct. Error bars are the sds among three technical replicates of real-time qRT-PCR. *, Expression level of the gene in the TRV2∷TC381- or TRV2∷TC1146-infiltrated plant is significantly lower than that in the TRV2∷00-infiltrated plant with 98% confidence by t test. Both of the experiments in A and B were repeated twice with two individual silenced plants and the results were similar.