Pathogenicity test of the MoPEX11 deletion mutants.
(A) Spray-inoculation with conidial suspension (1×105 conidia/ml) of the wild type, KO11A, KO11B, KO11C and complemented strains 11A-com on 2-week-old rice cultivar CO39. The symptoms were recorded at 7 days post-inoculation (dpi). (B), Spray-inoculation with conidial suspension (2×104 conidia/ml) on 7-day-old barley cultivar ZJ-8, recorded at 4 dpi. The 20 μl droplets of conidial suspensions in gradient concentrations were inoculated on intact (C) and wounded barley leaves (D) and cultured for 4 days. Droplet-inoculation with conidial suspensions supplied with 2.5% Glucose was performed on intact (E) and wounded barley leaves (F) and cultured for 4 days. (G) Microscopic analysis of the infection process of the mutants. Droplet-inoculated barley leaves were sampled at 18, 30 and 48 h post-inoculation, discolored and examined microscopely. Bar = 40 μm. (H) Statistic analysis of infection rates of the appressoria of the wild type and the mutants. Standard deviations are indicated by the error bars. Asterisks indicate significant differences at p = 0.05.
