Fig. 3

Silencing of SlHUB1 and SlHUB2 resulted in reduced resistance to B. cinerea. Two-week-old seedlings were infiltrated with agrobacteria carrying pTRV2-SlHUB1, pTRV2-SlHUB2 or pTRV2-GUS constructs and disease assays were carried out at 4 weeks after VIGS infiltration. a Silencing efficiency of SlHUB1 and SlHUB2 in VIGS construct-infiltrated plants. The transcript levels of SlHUB1 or SlHUB2 in pTRV2-SlHUB1 or pTRV2-SlHUB2-infiltrated plants were analyzed by qRT-PCR and compared to that in pTRV2-GUS-infiltrated plants, which was set 1. b, d Disease phenotype (b) and lesion size (d) on detached leaves of pTRV2-SlHUB1, pTRV2-SlHUB2 or pTRV2-GUS-infiltrated plants after drop-inoculation with B. cinerea, respectively. Photographs were taken at 4 days post-inoculation (dpi). Lesion sizes were measured at 4 dpi and on a minimum of 30 leaves in each experiment. c, e Disease phenotype (c) and fungal growth (e) of pTRV2-SlHUB1, pTRV2-SlHUB2 or pTRV2-GUS-infiltrated plants after spraying with B. cinerea, respectively. Photographs were taken at 6 dpi. Growth of B. cinerea in planta was measured at 3 dpi by analyzing the transcript level of BcActinA gene with the SlActin gene as an internal control. Data presented are the means ± SD from three independent experiments and different letters above the columns indicate significant differences at p < 0.05 level