CSL-gel induces broad-spectrum resistance against different
plant virus
To assess whether CSL-gel induces broad-spectrum resistance against
different virus, N. benthamiana plants treated with CSL-gel were
separately inoculated with the tobacco rattle virus (TRV), potato virus
X (PVX) and
turnip
mosaic virus (TuMV) by rubbing. SL-gel and water treated plants were
included as controls. At the early stage of infection (TRV: 5 dpi, TuMV:
12dpi), the number of green fluorescent spots in CSL-gel-treatedN. benthamiana was similar to SL-gel-treated plants. However, in
the late stage of infection (TRV: 9 dpi, TuMV: 16 dpi), the green
fluorescent signals present in the young leaves of the CSL-gel-treated
plant were significantly lower than that of the water and SL-gel
treatment groups (Figure 6a-b ). Figure 6c showed that
18 days after inoculation, symptoms caused by PVX were relatively mild
in the young leaves of and CSL-gel-treated plants, while PVX caused
severe symptoms in the young leaves of water-treated plants. At 22 dpi,
PVX infection developed severely curly young leaves in the water-treated
plants, and plants treated with SL-gel showed mild symptoms. However, no
symptoms caused by PVX infection were observed in the CSL-gel-treated
plants (Figure 6c ). Furthermore, qPCR analysis showed that the
number of virus-CP transcripts in the CSL-gel-treated plant was
significantly lower than that in the SL-gel and water-treated plants
(Figure 6d-i ). Therefore, we can conclude that CSL-gel inhibits
the infection caused by the majority of viruses in N. benthamianaplants.