Fig. 6

RNAi knockdown of chemosensory genes affected M. graminicola host finding ability to rice root. (A) J2s were inoculated at 1.5 cm distance behind the root tip and tracks inscribed by J2s in Pluronic gel while finding host were documented. At 2 h after inoculation, a directed proprioception (normal sinusoidal movement) of gfp dsRNA-treated J2s were observed in contrast to non-directional proprioception (recurrent changes in direction of movement) of Mg-tax-4 dsRNA-treated J2s. (B) Comparative attraction of dsRNA-treated and control J2s towards root tip at 2, 4, 6, 8 and 16 h after inoculation. Each bar indicates average number of J2s attracted in three biological and five technical replicates ± SE. Bars with different letters are significantly different as per the Tukey’s test, P < 0.01. (C) Representative images demonstrate lower attraction of Mg-odr-7, Mg-tax-4 and Mg-osm-9 silenced J2s than control worms at 8 h post inoculation. Scale bar = 100 μm