Figure 2.

Deletion mutants of MoRCN1 lead to severe reduction in virulence. (A) Virulence test on barley leaves. Lesions formed on barley leaves were sprayed by conidia (3 × 10⁴ conidia/ml) of indicated strains and observed at 5-day post inoculation (dpi). (B) Virulence test on rice seedlings. Lesions formed on rice leaves were induced by spray inoculation with conidia (1.5 × 10⁵ conidia/ml) of indicated strains and observed at 5 dpi. (C) Lesions formed on wounded rice leaves. The wounded rice leaves were inoculated by mycelia blocks of different strains and observed at 4 dpi. (D) Appressorium formation were observed under a light microscope. The conidia of tested strains were inoculated on hydrophobic surfaces and calculated at 18 hpi. Bar 30 μm. (E) Statistical analysis of appressoria formation ratio. Error bars represent the standard deviation, and asterisks represent significant differences among strains (P < 0.01). (F) Invasive hyphae (IH) formed in barley epidermal cells infected by different strains at 24 and 30 hpi. Bar = 30 μm. (G) Formation ratio of different patterns of infection structures at 24 hpi. (H) Formation ratio of different patterns of infection structures at 30 hpi. For (G) and (H), percentages of appressoria (AP), primary invasive hyphae (PH), and IH with branches in barley epidermal cells were calculated. Means and standard deviation were calculated from three independent replicates. Significant differences compared to the WT are indicated by asterisks (P < 0.01).