Botrytis cinerea cultivation, infection and scoring
B. cinerea R16 (Faretra and Pollastro, 1991) was used in all
experiments and was kindly provided by Dr Mike Roberts (Lancaster
University). Cultivation of the fungus and infection of tomato-based
experiments were performed as described (Luna et al., 2016). ForN. benthamiana, 2-3 detached leaves were inoculated with 6µl
inoculum solution containing 2 x 104 spores/ml ofB. cinerea . Infected leaves were kept at 100% RH by sealing the
trays and placed in the dark before disease assessment. Arabidopsis
infections were performed as previously described (La Camera et al.,
2011) with a few modifications. Leaves were inoculated with 5µl inoculum
solution containing ½ strength of potato dextrose broth (PDB – Difco at
12 g/l) and 5 x 105 spores/ml. Infected Arabidopsis
plants were put in a sealed tray at 100% RH and moved back to the
growth cabinet. Infections of S. melongena plants were performed
by drop inoculating detached leaves with a spore solution of B.
cinerea containing 2 x 104 spores/ ml. For all
pathosystems, disease was scored by measuring lesion diameters with an
electronic calliper (0.1 mm resolution) on different days post
infection.