| Phenotype Detail | A marked reduction of nodulation occurred in LYK3 knockdown roots inoculated with Sm2011delta(nodFE)-GFP. In this case, 60% of the cotransformed roots (n=55) completely
lacked nodules. In contrast, inoculation with wild-type Sm2011-GFP resulted in only a single Nod- root, whereas the remaining roots were Nod+ (n=13, averaging 7 nodules per root). LYK3 knockdown roots that did not contain nodules after inoculation with Sm2011delta(nodFE)-GFP (n=28) were still able to trap bacteria within curled root hairs. However, the number of infection threads was markedly reduced. Most infections (78%) were arrested at the microcolony stage (n=482, averaging 17 microcolonies per root). Furthermore, infection thread-like structures were formed but aborted in the root hair (n=136, averaging 5 structures per root) and had aberrant morphologies that consisted of tube- and sac-like structures. When LYK3
knockdown roots were inoculated with wildtype Sm 2011-GFP, the majority of the infection events resulted in tubular infection threads (n=148, averaging 11 threads per root). In about 20% of the cases, tubes containing sac-like structures were observed (n=43, averaging 3 structures per root). |
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