Figure 8.
Effect of RCA reduction on photosynthesis, biomass, and nitrate content in N. attenuata. Three-week-old N. attenuata plants were inoculated with Agrobacterium tumefaciens harboring a TRV-based construct containing a 268-bp fragment of Narca or EV constructs for the VIGS experiments. A, Gene silencing was confirmed at transcript and (Ea–Ed) proteomic levels. RCA spots are from rca-silenced plants compared with EV-transformed plants; shown are EV control leaves (Ea), EV leaves treated with OS (Eb), rca-VIGS control leaves (Ec), and rca-VIGS leaves treated with OS (Ed). B, Net photosynthetic rates and intercellular CO2 concentrations of rca-VIGS plants (white bars) were measured and compared to EV control plants (black bars) under saturating light (approximately 1,400 μm m−2 s−1) intensities using a LI-COR 6400 portable photosynthesis system. C, Seven-week-old plants were harvested and dried in the oven at 60oC for 48 h for dry mass measurements. D, The nitrate content of these plants was measured spectrophotometrically.