VIGS of CAS1 and LAS1 in Nicotiana benthamiana.

A, Morphological phenotype of PVX (left) and PVX::CAS1 (right) plants 4 weeks after inoculation, the close-up shows bleaching of veins. B, Morphological phenotype of PVX (left) and PVX::CAS1 (right) plants 5 weeks after inoculation, the close-up shows leaf wilting and necrosis. C, Relative gene expression in PVX::CAS1 plants, CAS1 is a measurement of the endogenous NbCAS1 level, PVX::CAS1 is a measurement of the viral NtCAS1 transcript. D, Relative gene expression in PVX::LAS1 plants, LAS1 is a measurement of the endogenous NbLAS1 level, PVX::LAS1 is a measurement of the viral NbLAS1 transcript. E, squalene epoxide amounts measured by GC-FID in silenced plants. F, sterol composition of PVX and PVX::CAS1 plants. Structure of the compounds detected here are shown in Fig. S1. The pictures in A and B are representative of 4 independent experiments that included all 3 plants inoculated with each type of viral transcripts.