Table 1.

Testing of dsRNA for protection against mechanical inoculation of BCMV.

Host	Treatment group	Infected a	Percent infected (%)	Total percent infected (%)
Cowpea	BCMV only	10/10	100	93
		9/10	90
		9/10	90
	GFP-dsRNA	15/15	100	93
		13/15	87
	BCMVNIb-dsRNA	8/10	80	47**
		2/10	20
		4/10	40
	BCMVCP-dsRNA	1/10	10	13***
		1/10	10
		2/10	20
N. benthamiana	BCMV only	5/5	100	77
		8/10	80
		5/10	50
		9/10	90
	GFP-dsRNA	5/5	100	57
		9/10	90
		3/10	30
		3/10	30
	BCMVNIb-dsRNA	2/5	40	20***
		3/10	30
		0/10	0
		2/10	20
	BCMVCP- dsRNA	1/5	20	6***
		0/10	0
		2/10	20
		0/10	0

^aInfected as determined by ACP-ELISA (Supplementary Figures 2–8).

^**p < 0.01 and ^***p < 0.001 statistical significance compared to BCMV only using Fisher’s exact test of independence with post-hoc Holm-Bonferroni multiple corrections.

Plants were sprayed with GFP-dsRNA (control treatment), BCMVNIb-dsRNA or BCMVCP-dsRNA and challenged with BCMV 1 day post-spraying. ‘BCMV only’ plants were untreated before challenging with BCMV. BCMV infection was determined using ELISA at 10 days post-inoculation. Total percent infected indicates the overall infection rate from two to four independent experiments per treatment.