Fig. 3

Characterization of wild type (WT) and transgenic RNAi_SlS5H (lines 14 and 16) tomato plants infected with Citrus Exocortis Viroid (CEVd). Tomato plants were inoculated with CEVd. Leaf samples were taken 3 weeks after inoculation and analyzed for CEVd (A), S5H (B) and PR1 (C) gene expression, and phenolic compound accumulation (Salicylic Acid, SA, D; Gentisic Acid, GA, E). MOCK represents the non-inoculated plants. The qRT-PCR values were normalized with the level of expression of the actin gene. The data are presented as means ± standard deviation of a representative experiment (n > 3). Statistically significant differences (p-value < 0.05) between genotypes and infected or mock-treated plants are represented by different letters. Significant differences in SA and GA accumulation are analysed in free (x) and total (x’) phenolic compounds