Fig. 4

Expression of a target mimic of Osa-miR162a (MIM162) enhances rice susceptibility to Magnaporthe oryzae. a Accumulation of Osa-miR162a in wild type (Nipponbare, NPB) and MIM162. Total RNA was used for reverse-transcription (RT) with an Osa-miR162 specific stem-loop RT primers (Additional file 4: Table S1), and the RT product was subsequently used as a template for quantitative polymerase chain reaction (q-PCR). snRNA U6 served as an internal reference. b Blast disease phenotypes on leaves of NPB and MIM162 at 5 days post-inoculation (dpi) of M. oryzae strain GZ8 and 97–27-2. Bar = 5 mm. c Quantification analysis of fungal biomass in (b). The relative fungal biomass was determined by detecting the DNA levels of the M. oryzae Pot2 gene against the rice Ubiquitin DNA levels. d Invasion process of GZ8 at 24 and 36 h post-inoculation (hpi) on sheath cells of the indicated lines. Bars = 25 μm. The white arrows indicate appressoria formed from conidia, and the red arrowheads indicate invasive hypha in rice sheath cells. e Quantification analysis on infection process. Over 200 conidia in each line were analyzed. For (a) and (c), Error bars indicate SD (n = 3). Different letters above the bars indicate significant differences (P < 0.05) as determined by One-way ANOVA analysis. Similar results were obtained in at least two independent experiments