Fig. 2

Expression of a target mimic of miR1432 (MIM1432) enhances rice resistance against Magnaporthe oryzae. a The relative amounts of miR1432 in MIM1432 and the Nipponbare (NPB) control. Reverse-transcription (RT) was conducted with total RNA and a miR1432 specific stem-loop RT primer (Additional file 2: Table S2). The RT product was used as a template for quantitative polymerase chain reaction (q-PCR) to examine the amounts of miR1432. snRNA U6 was served as an internal reference. b The blast disease phenotypes on leaves of MIM1432 and the Nipponbare control at 5 days post-inoculation of M. oryzae strains GZ8, 97-27-2, and DZ96. Bar = 5 mm. c The relative fungal biomass of the indicated strains on MIM1432 and the Nipponbare control in (b). The relative fungal biomass was determined by using the ratio of DNA levels of the M. oryzae Pot2 against the DNA levels of rice Ubiquitin. d The invasion process of GZ8 at 24, 36, and 48 h post-inoculation (hpi) in sheath cells of the indicated lines. Bars = 40 µm. The white arrows indicate appressoria formed from conidia, and the red arrowheads indicate invasive hypha in rice sheath cells. e Quantification analysis of the fungal development during the invasive process. Over 200 conidia in each line were analyzed. For a and c, error bars indicate SD (n = 3 independent samples). Different letters above the bars indicate significant differences (P < 0.01) as determined by One-way Tukey–Kramer analysis. Similar results were obtained in at least two independent experiments