Fig. 4
Efficiency of different methods for tomato composite plant production. The percentage of 30 day-old vigorous composite plants grown in pots with respect to the initially A. rhizogenes inoculated seedlings is shown. The effectiveness of a filter paper strip covering the wounded A. rhizogenes inoculated hypocotyls in sandwich mode was proved (a), and we compare two A. rhizogenes inoculation methods: by punctures or by coating the bottom part of the hypocotyl with the bacterial culture (b). The requirement of cefotaxime (500 μg ml−1) and kanamycin (100 μg ml−1) antibiotics was tested (c). When not specified, standard conditions were used, which include the sandwich mode, A. rhizogenes inoculation by punctures and the use of antibiotics. Data corresponds to at least three independent experiments starting from 100 germinated seeds. A. rhizogenes carried the empty vectors pK7GWIWG2_II-RedRoot (a–c), pUBIcGFP-DR (a, b) or pBGWFS7::pAtUbq10::DsRed (a, b). Values correspond to mean ± SE. Significant differences (Student’s t test) between treatments are indicated with asterisks (****P < 0.0001)