MoVps35 is essential for host penetration during rice blast.

<p>(A) Infection-related morphogenesis assays. Normal morphology and melanized appressoria formed by the wild type, <i>ΔMovps35</i> mutant and complemented strains on plastic cover slips. (B) Penetration assays with onion epidermal cells. By 48 h after inoculation, invasive hyphae were evident in plant cells penetrated by WT and complemented strains but not by the <i>ΔMovps35</i> mutant. A, appressorium; C, conidium; IH, invasive hyphae. (C) Equal number of conidia from WT, <i>ΔMovps35</i> and complemented strains were inoculated on barley leaves. At 48 hpi, the papillary callose deposits (arrowheads) were evident in the barley leaves inoculated with conidia from the WT or complemented strains, but were absent in <i>ΔMovps35</i>-inoculated samples. Scale Bars = 20 μm. (D) and (E) Quantifications of penetration pegs and infection hyphae from three independent experiments at each time point, where values are indicated as percentages. The double asterisks indicate statistically significant differences (P < 0.01).