Figure 6.

Virulence analysis of ΔVdAAC, ΔVdAAC-C and wild-type V. dahliae (Vd wt) strains on the wild-type Nicotiana benthamiana (Nb wt). The Nb wt seedlings were inoculated with 10⁶ conidia·mL⁻¹. (A) Virulence phenotypes of Nb wt seedlings and (B) fungal biomass of different tissues of plants at 12 days after inoculation with the different strains. For the relative quantitative analysis, ITS1 and ITS2 of rDNA (Z29511) of V. dahliae were quantified relative to N. benthamiana housekeeping gene (Nbactin) for equilibration. (C) GFP fluorescence detection in roots of plants 7 days after inoculation with Vd-GFP or ΔVdAAC-GFP. Duncan’s multiple range test was applied to determine significant differences among the treatment groups (p < 0.05) indicated by different letters (a–e).