Fig. 2
Pretreatment with salicylic acid (SA) reduces the colonisation area of P. aphains in the leaf of strawberry. a Experimental outline. Young strawberry leaves were sprayed with distilled water and SA. After 4 h, a subset of plants from each group were inoculated with P. aphains. Leaves were collected from 10 plants at 0 dpi and 3 dpi after P. aphanis inoculation. b Photographic documentation of the progression of P. aphanis infection in strawberry leaves treated with ddH2O or SA at different time points after inoculation (0, 3, and 7 dpi). Bar = 1 cm. cP. aphanis conidial germination on strawberry leaves at different time points. d Time course of strawberry leaf responses to infection with P. aphanis. Changes in the chlorophyll fluorescence parameters Fv/Fm, ΦII, ΦNPQ, and ΦNO were measured in leaves inoculated with P. aphanis. Measurements were taken at 0, 1, 3, 5, and 7 days post-inoculation (dpi). Fv/Fm was determined for 20 min dark-adapted leaves following initial exposure of plants to a saturating light pulse. All values are expressed as mean ± standard error; N = 3 for Fv/Fm, ΦII, ΦNPQ, and ΦNO measurements