Figure 1.

Sat-T1 attenuated viral symptoms, accompanied with a decreased accumulation of viral RNAs in plants. Nicotiana benthamiana plants were inoculated with CMV alone or plus sat-T1 via agroinfiltration. Mock plants were treated with infiltration solution. (A) Viral symptoms in N. benthamiana plants. The plants were photographed at 6 days post-infiltration. Bar scale, 1 cm. (B) Northern blot hybridization analysis of viral RNAs and sat-T1 in the inoculated or upper systemic leaves at different time points as indicated. The DNA oligonucleotide probes targeting CMV 3′ UTR, 1a and 2b were used to detect all viral RNAs, RNA1, and RNA2 and its subgenomic RNA4A, respectively. The ethidium bromide-stained rRNAs were used as a loading control. The signal intensities of viral RNAs were arbitrarily quantified using the program Gel Pro Analyzer 4.0. The relative level of each viral RNA is shown in the chart below. All of viral RNAs in the CMV-infected plants at each time point were assigned a value of 1. The columns represent the mean value and standard error from three independent biological experiments.