Figure 6: PsAvh262 attenuates endoplasmic reticulum stress-triggered cell death during P. sojae infection.

(a) Accumulations of GmBiPs in soybean after hypocotyls were infected with P. sojae P6497 (wild-type) or two PsAvh262-silenced transformants (S62 and S76) were determined by western blotting using an anti-BiP antibody. Antibody against actin was used as an internal standard. Numbers below the blot indicate relative abundances of GmBiPs. Asterisks (* or **) denote significant differences (P<0.05 or P<0.01, one-way ANOVA, n=3) between samples. (b–d) Transcript abundances of ER-stress-related genes. The soybean housekeeping gene CYP2 (TC224926) was used as an internal standard in each case. GmBiP1 (b), Protein disulfide isomerase (PDI) (c) and vacuolar processing enzyme (VPE) (d) were determined by qRT–PCR in soybeans inoculated with wild-type or PsAvh262-silenced mutants of P. sojae. Error bars represent the mean±s.d.(n=3) and asterisks (*, ** or ***) denote significant differences (P<0.05, P<0.01 or P<0.001, respectively) between samples. The statistical significance of the pairwise differences between PsAvh262-silenced mutants and wild-type strain at 0 d.p.i. was assessed with one-way ANOVA. Similar results were observed in three independent experiments.