Figure 4.

MEKK2-mediated autoimmunity cascade is not responsible for the altered basal expression levels of the defense genes. A, Expression of MEKK2 was analyzed in anp double mutant seedlings and in anp triple mutant (amiR3 line 5.3 and amiR1 line 2.5) seedlings grown in the absence (DMSO) or in the presence of β-estradiol. B, Expression of the indicated defense response genes was measured in two allelic mekk1 loss-of-function mutants and in the mekk1/mekk2/mekk3 deletion mutant. All analyses were performed by qRT-PCR, and results are shown as the mean of at least three independent experiments (± se; n = 20 in each experiment) normalized to UBQ5 expression and plotted relative to expression in the corresponding wild type (Ws for anp mutants and Col-0 for mekk1-1, mekk1-2, and mekk1/mekk2/mekk3 mutants). Asterisks indicate statistically significant differences between gene expression in mutant seedlings and Col-0 according to Student’s t test (*P < 0.05 and **P < 0.01).