Fig. 7

The functional identification of WRKY family members in pepper’s defense against P. capsici infection by VIGS system. Nineteen of these induced CaWRKY genes with differential expression patterns were selected for virus-induced gene silencing (VIGS). The VIGS efficiency was determined by qRT-PCR analysis at its highest induction time points after P. capsici inoculation in (a) EC01 and (c) CM334. Expression levels were normalized with CaActin, and expressed as mean fold changes relative to TRV:0-treated leaves, which were set as 1. The disease lesions were measured from detached leaves (n = 5) at 2.5 days post inoculation from (b) EC01 and (d) CM334. Asterisks indicate statistically significant differences compared with the TRV:0 empty vector controls by the least significant difference (LSD) test (*P < 0.05; **P < 0.01). This experiment was repeated twice with similar results