Figure 2.

Analysis of the FgDICER2‐ or FgAGO1‐promoter/green fluorescent protein (GFP)‐reporter expression mutants. (A) Colony morphologies of virus‐free (left), FgV1‐infected (middle) and FgV2‐infected (right) FgDICER2‐ or FgAGO1‐promoter/GFP‐reporter expression mutants. All cultures were photographed after 4 days on complete medium. (B) Southern blot hybridization of each transformed mutant. A ³²P‐labelled GFP DNA fragment was used as a probe. Lane 1, wild‐type (WT) strain PH‐1; lanes 2 to 4, biological replicates of the indicated promoter/GFP‐reporter expression mutant. (C) Levels of target gene transcripts in virus‐free, FgV1‐infected and FgV2‐infected transformed mutant strains. The relative accumulation levels of GFP, FgDICER2 and FgAGO1 were analysed by RT‐qPCR after 5 days of incubation. Values are means (±SD) of three biological replicates and three independent experiments. Means with * or ** indicate a statistical difference (P < 0.05 or P < 0.01, respectively) relative to the mean for the noninfected fungus.