FIG 3.

Competition between a low-UpA virus and its parental control. (A) Schematic representation of the competition experiment. Microcarrier cartridges were prepared with gold particles coated with a DNA mixture of the indicated plasmids and used to inoculate N. benthamiana plants by shooting. Thirty days postinoculation (dpi), upper noninoculated leaves were collected and used to determine the composition of the viral progeny. Extracts from infected plants in which competitors accumulated at similar levels were used to inoculate new N. benthamiana plants, whose viral progeny was also analyzed at 30 dpi in upper noninoculated leaves. (B) Images showing a representative region of the chromatogram obtained from the sequencing of PCR products from inoculated DNA mixes and viral progeny cDNAs. This region includes two single-nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs) in positions 3 and 6, allowing the identification of viruses in the mix. The identity of viruses found in upper noninoculated leaves of each infected plant is shown below each chromatogram.