Construction of an Ss-Sl2 RNAi vector (pSisl2) and functional analysis of <i>Ss-Sl2</i> silenced strains.

<p>(A) A 310 bp fragment of <i>Ss-Sl2</i> was inserted in the sense orientation between an <i>Aspergillus nidulans trpC</i> promoter and an intron from <i>Gibberella zeae</i>, and the same fragment of <i>Ss-Sl2</i> was inserted in antisense orientations between this intron and the <i>trpC</i> terminator. (B) Expression level of <i>Ss-Sl2</i> in isolates containing pSisl2 and in the wild type strain were determined by real-time RT-PCR. The expression level of <i>Ss-Sl2</i> cDNA was normalized to that of <i>actin</i> cDNA in extracts from each strain. The abundance of cDNA from the wild type was assigned a value of 1. Bars indicate standard error. (C) Phenotype of the wild type strain and <i>Ss-Sl2</i> gene-silenced transformants.