Figure 1

Whole-leaf and cross section of wild-type Col-0 and AT1703 A. thaliana uninfected control and infected with S. sclerotiorum at (A) 0, (B) 2, and (C) 3 days post inoculation. Five µM cross-sections generated using Leica RM2245 and stained with (A) toluidine blue and (B,C) lactophenol cotton blue. (D) lesion size (mm²), (E) fungal load and (F) target transcript reduction in Col-0 and T3 AT1703 leaves infected with S. sclerotiorum. A. thaliana inoculated with 1 × 10⁶ µL ascospore solution and measured at 2- and 3-days post inoculation. (D) Sample size of n = 15 leaves per line were measured using ImageJ software and normalized to wild-type Col-0 leaves for lesion measurements. Error bars represent standard error and significance was determined using a Student’s t-test (p < 0.05). * = significance. (E) Fungal load quantified using relative abundance of 18S S. sclerotiorum rDNA and calculated using ∆CT against wild-type Col-0. Each line consists of three biological replicates, each containing three infected A. thaliana leaves. (F) Target transcript abundance calculated using the ∆∆CT method with Sac7 as a reference gene. Each line consists of three biological replicates, each containing three infected A. thaliana leaves for (E) and (F). Error bars represent standard error. Scale bars = 50 µm. e, epidermis; m, mesophyll; x, xylem; p, phloem; v, vasculature; s, S. sclerotiorum.