Rad2b‐Pro did not suppress efficiently either Dicer‐like 2‐ (DCL2‐) or DCL4‐dependent short‐interfering (si)RNA‐guided antiviral RNA silencing. A
rabidopsis thaliana
Col‐0 wild‐type (WT) and dcl mutants were inoculated with the Fny‐CMV/Rad35‐CMV chimera CMV‐FRad2b‐Pro, its derivative CMV‐FRad2b‐Leu or mock inoculated (Mock). (A) Viral disease symptoms on A
rabidopsis
WT, dcl2, dcl3, dcl4 single‐mutant and dcl2/3/4 triple‐mutant plants with virus infection as indicated. Plants were photographed at 14 days post‐inoculation (dpi). (B) Northern blotting analysis of accumulation of viral progeny RNAs. Total RNA samples were extracted from a pool of five plant individuals at 14 dpi. Five micrograms per RNA sample were separated on 1.5% agarose gel with formaldehyde. rRNAs were used as a loading control. M indicates Mock, P indicates CMV‐FRad2b‐Pro and L indicates CMV‐FRad2b‐Leu. The numbers below lanes represent the relative accumulation (RA) of CMV. The RA value of CMV from the wild‐type plant with infection of CMV‐FRad2b‐Pro was set as unity.