Figure 4
Effect of T. virens (parental strain, ∆ sm1 and ∆ sm2 ) on plant protection in maize seedlings challenged with the maize pathogen C. heterostrophus . (a) Lesion development in leaves of T. virens-induced maize, two days after pathogen challenge. (b) Lesion size measured from photographed leaves. Number of lesions measured in control plant, 33; T. virens parental strain, 23; ∆sm1, 24; ∆sm2, 23. (c) Gene expression (qPCR) of sm1 and sm2 in maize seedlings infected with the pathogen C. heterostrophus and treated with the T. virens parental strain, sm1 and sm2 knockout strain. Number of lesions measured in control plant, 24; T. atroviride wild-type, 27; ∆epl1, 23; ∆epl2, 23; ∆epl1∆epl2, 24. Data from (b) and (d) represent the combined data from plants taken from two beakers. The experiment was carried out independently twice, with two biological repeats, each one containing 12 plants, with the same results within the variability. Bars indicate the SEM (standard error of the mean). *, ** and *** indicate significance at P < 0.05, 0.01 and 0.001. (d) Effect of T. atroviride (wild-type, ∆epl1, ∆epl2, and ∆epl1∆epl2) on plant protection in maize seedlings challenged with the maize pathogen C. heterostrophus. Lesion size measured from photographed leaves.