Fig. 5

Phenotype and virulence of UV_1261-silenced U. virens transformants. a Expression level of UV_1261 in wild-type PJ52 and three transformants. Gene silencing was confirmed by RT-qPCR using UvTub2α as a reference gene. PJ52 was set as the control. b Representative images of indicated U. virens colonies cultured in PSA for 2 weeks, and conidia cultured in PSB for 7 days. Upper panel, top view of colonies from wild-type PJ52 and three transformants T1, T2, T3. Scale bar, 1 cm. Middle panel, bottom view of colonies from wild-type PJ52 and three transformants T1, T2, T3. Lower panel, morphology of conidia from wild-type PJ52 and three transformants T1, T2, T3. Scale bar, 10 μm. c Disease assay of wild-type PJ52 and three transformants T1, T2, T3. Each U. virens inocula were artificially injected into 30–50 panicles of Pujiang 6 at late booting stage. Representative images of diseased rice panicles infected with PJ52, T1, T2, or T3 were shown. d Around 4 wpi, the number of rice false smut ball per panicle was recorded. Statistical analysis was performed with LSD method in SPSS Version 21. Different letters above the data box indicate significant differences at P < 0.05