Figure 6.

The MoNLP family is dispensable for virulence of M. oryzae on rice plants. (A) Disease symptoms caused by wild type and mutant fungal strains are similar on rice leaves. Ten-day-old susceptible rice seedlings (cv. LTH) were sprayed with conidial suspensions (1 × 10⁵ conidia ml⁻¹) and incubated at room temperature with high relative humidity. Leaves were photographed at 5 days post inoculation. (B) The fungal growth of quadruple mutant is similar to that of wild type during infection. Samples were collected and weighted at 120 hpi, and DNA was extracted for qPCR assay of the fungal Actin. The fungal growth was quantitatively determined by the amount of fungal DNA in fresh leaves. (C) Percentages of types of infection sites classified by number of cells occupied by infectious hyphae on leaf sheath. The hollow space of sheaths (6.5 leaf stage) was injected with conidial suspension (5 × 10³ conidia ml⁻¹). The infected tissues were stained with lactophenol cotton blue at 72 hpi. At least 40 infection sites were examined for each of the four plants used. Data shown in (B) are means ± sd (n = 4), and in (C) are means ± se (n = 4). Experiments were repeated at least twice with similar results.