Fig. 6: Spray-induced protection of Brachypodium distachyon and gene silencing in Magnaporthe oryzae.

A Intact three-week-old Bd seedlings were sprayed with a solution containing conidia (65 × 10³ conidia mL⁻¹) and 0.03 ng/µL of the indicated siRNA and dsRNA. Infection symptoms were determined at 6 dpi and the relative size of the necrotic area was quantified using ImageJ. The results of three independent replicates were combined and box plots represent average with standard deviation. Statistical significance was assessed with Kruskal-Wallis test (p ≤ 0.05) and asterisks denote difference to the control group according to Dunn’s multiple comparisons test (* Pmk1-dsRNA: p = 0.0279; * Pmk1-siRNA: p = 0.0267. B Silencing of the fungal MoPmk1 gene in response to dsRNA treatment of Brachypodium distachyon leaves. Three-week-old Bd seedlings were sprayed with a mixture of Mo conidia and 0.03 ng/µL of fungal target-specific Pmk1-dsRNA, Pmk1-siRNA or GFP-dsRNA or -siRNA. Leaves were harvested at 12 hpi and analysed with RT-qPCR using MoGPD for normalization. Bars represent average of three experiments combined with standard deviation. Statistical significance was assessed with One-way ANOVA test (p ≤ 0.05) and asterisks denote difference to the control group according to Dunnett test. (** Pmk1-dsRNA: p = 0.0033; ** Pmk1-siRNA: p = 0.0024). Mo indicates a non-treated control.