Figure 4. Drooping of control tobacco plants after whitefly infestation.

The plants were challenged with the insects at age of 3 months (A) and 4.5 months (B). The control plants lost large amount of sap owing to heavy infestation of whitefly and drooped after 15 days, transgenic plant exhibited nearly complete tolerance. Leaves of mature plants started to droop at the base (B, indicated by arrows). (C) The sugar content of the leaves was estimated in the 3-month-old plants. Infestation reduced the sugar content to approximately 50% in the control plants. Asterisk indicates significant difference in sugar content after 15 days of infestation in control lines (Student's t-test, *p<0.05).