Fig. 2

Expression patterns of GhGPX1 promoter-GUS constructs and quantification of wound-inducible GhWRKY40 expression levels in G. hirsutum plants inoculated with different Agrobacterium strains. GUS staining (a) and GUS activity in cotyledons (b) of plants transiently expressing GhGPX1 promoter-GUS constructs using Agrobacterium EHA105, GV3101 and LBA4404 strains; at least three independent seedlings were used for GUS staining; GUS activity values are the means of approximately 5 seedlings. c qRT-PCR analysis of wound-inducible GhWRKY40 gene transcript levels in cotyledons of WT and transiently expressing seedlings. The reference gene GhUBQ7 was used for normalization purposes in the qRT-PCR assays. For each sample of GUS activity assay, at least three different sections of a single cotyledon from one seedling were processed separately as three technical replicates, and three different seedlings were used to make three biological replicates. Asterisks indicate significant differences from WT at **p < 0.01 (two tailed Students t test)