Figure 2. Kinetics of mj-far-1 gene transcripts through M. javanica life cycle stages.

mj-far-1 expression was detected for non-parasitic stages: eggs and pre-parasitic infective juvenile J2s; and within tomato roots, for migratory parasitic J2s (6 h and 48 h after infection), J2s and J3/J4 juveniles, and mature females (15 and 28 DAI, respectively). mj-far-1 transcripts were normalized using the normalisation factor calculated as the geometric mean of the expression levels of two most stable nematode endogenous reference genes, 18S and EF-1α. Each reaction was performed in triplicate and the results represented the mean of two independent biological replicates. Data represent the mean relative expression and standard error obtained from two independent biological experiments. Different letters above the bars denote a significant difference (P≤0.05, analysis of variance) between samples as analyzed by Tukey-Kramer multiple comparison test. The experiment was repeated three times and similar results were obtained.