Figure 2

Expression patterns of WRKY genes in leaves of three-week-old soybean plants infected with P. pachyrizi. The gene response in susceptible (Embrapa-48) and resistant (PI 561356) genotypes during P. pachyrizi infection (inoculated) was evaluated using RT-qPCR. Mock-inoculated plants were used as a control. The values (mean ± SD) were calculated based on three biological replicates and four technical replicates. Multifactorial analysis of three factors (genotype, treatment and time) was highly significant: GmWRKY57, GmWRKY27, GmWRKY125, GmWRKY20 and GmWRKY46 p = 0.0001; GmWRKY139 p = 0.0265; GmWRKY56 p = 0.0003. The means indicated with the same letters in the same cultivar and treatment did not differ significantly (Tukey's multiple comparison test, p < 0.05). Lower case letters were used to identify differences among inoculated Embrapa-48 plants and capital letters were used to identify differences among inoculated PI561356 plants. F-Box protein and metalloprotease reference genes were used as internal controls to normalize the amount of mRNA present in each sample. Transcript levels of WRKY genes present in mock-inoculated plants were used to calculate transcript accumulation in the inoculated plants.