Figure 3.

Plasmodium binary choice chemotaxis assay of V. officinalis root tissues. (A) Schematic of the experimental design for the binary choice assay. Locations of two samples are denoted by x and y. Preference for a sample is indicated by a rounded arrow and scored as a positive chemotactic event. Three outcomes are defined: propagation occurs toward sample x, propagation occurs toward sample y, or plasmodium is attracted to both x and y simultaneously. (B) P. polycephalum is strongly attracted to wild type root of the intact V. officinalis plant when copresented with oat, its primary nutrient source. (C) VoHR5 hairy root recapitulates the chemoattractive force of the wild type plant root when co-presented with oat. (D) Plasmodium choice between V. officinalis wild type plant root and Agrobacterium-derived hairy root was not significantly different. Data represent the means ± SD of three independent experiments containing at least twenty replicates each (^***P≤0.001, One-Way ANOVA with Tukey's post-test with a 95% confidence interval. Detailed statistical information is provided in Table S1).