FIGURE 2.

Stomatal response to Mut3 and Mut9. (A) Bacterial inoculum (2 × 10⁶ CFU/mL) of Salmonella mutants and 14028s was syringe-infiltrated into 5-week-old L. sativa cv. Salinas leaves. Inoculation of leaves was performed 2 h after first light (hafl). Results are shown as the mean (n = 120 ± SE) stomatal aperture width in three independent leaves measured at 2 and 4 hpi. Note that error bars are too small to appear in the graph. Different letters above adjacent bars indicate statistically significant differences among the means within each time point as determined by two-way ANOVA with post hoc Tukey HSD test (p < 0.01). (B) Long-term impact of inoculation with 14028s or Mut9 on the stomatal circadian rhythm on intact L. sativa cv. Salinas plants from 0 hafl until darkness (12 hafl). Leaves either remained untreated or were infiltrated with water or a bacterial inoculum (2 × 10⁶ CFU/mL) after 2 hafl. Mean stomatal aperture width (n = 80 ± SE) of eight biological replicates (i.e., four different leaves and the experiment performed twice). Ten stomata were imaged per leaf. Statistical significance of samples within each time point was determined using a one-way ANOVA with post hoc Tukey HSD test (p < 0.01). Different letters above adjacent bars indicate statistically significant differences among the means.