FIGURE 3.
Botrytis cinerea-caused disease phenotype on leaves of VIGS-infiltrated plants with silencing of individual B3 group Ethylene-Responsive Factors (ERF) gene. Two-week-old tomato seedlings were infiltrated with agrobacteria carrying pTRV2-GUS or pTRV2-SlERFs constructs and fully expanded leaves were detached from pTRV2-GUS- or pTRV2-SlERF-infiltrated plants at 4 weeks after VIGS infiltration for disease assays. Inoculation with B. cinerea was done by dropping 5 μl of spore suspension (2 × 105 spores/ml). (A) Disease symptom on detached leaves at 3 days post inoculation (dpi). (B) Lesion sizes in leaves of the pTRV2-GUS- or pTRV2-SlERF-infiltrated plants at 3 days after inoculation. At least 10 leaves from ten individual plants were used for each experiment. Data presented (B) are the means ± SD from three independent experiments and different letters above the columns indicate significant differences at p < 0.05 level.