S. nodorum strains were

inoculated onto the above media from minimal medium (25 mM glucose) by excising a region of the agar containing approximately 4 mm2 of the agar surface of the (non-sporulating) growing edge of the mycelia onto the plates. Cultures were grown for 10 days in the dark at 22°C and colony diameters recorded 3, 5 and 10 days from inoculation, and observations of phenotype made. Four replicates were prepared per strain per carbon source assay. All statistical analyses were undertaken using the JMP7 package (SAS Institute). Statistical significance was determined CBL0137 nmr using the Tukey–Kramer analysis. Plant growth conditions Plant material and infection conditions Pots (10 cm diam.) containing Perlite (P500) and grade 2 Vermiculite (The Perlite and Vermiculite Factory, WA, Australia) were seeded with five seeds of the wheat variety Amery and grown at 20_ C in a 12 hr day/12 hr night cycle. The pathogenicity of the mutants was assayed on detached leaves from 2-week-old wheat seedlings, using a method modified from that described by Benedikz et al. [9, 21]. The distal

end (2 cm) of the detached wheat leaves was removed. The next portion (4–5 cm) was embedded into benzimidazole agar, adaxial side up. The leaves selleck were inoculated with small blocks of mycelium (approximately 45 mm3) and incubated in a 12 h light/12 h dark cycle at 22°C to enable disease development. Molecular methods Genomic DNA (gDNA) was extracted and isolated from S. nodorum mycelia using a Retsch® MM301 lyser (Retsch®, UK) at 30 (Htz; 1/s) and the QIAGEN BioSprint 15 using the BioSprint 15 DNA Plant Kit protocol (QIAGEN, Australia). DNA concentrations were determined using a NanoDropTM ND-1000 (Thermo Fisher Scientific Inc., USA). Synthesis of the Gga1 and Gba1 gene disruption constructs A construct for the disruption of S. nodorum Gga1 was synthesized using the 5′ and 3′ UTRs flanking the putative S. nodorum Gga1 (SNOG_00288), and the phleomycin cassette from the plasmid vector previously constructed and described by Solomon et al.[11]. The disruption of the Gga1 gene was performed using a split-marker approach [11]. To create only the split-marker, the phleomycin

cassette was PCR amplified in two sections (with a 145 bp overlap) designated PHL and LEO -using the two PCR primer sets PHLprimer and M13R, and LEOprimer and M13F, respectively. Note that all primer sequences are listed in Additional file 2: Table S1. The two genomic UTRs flanking Gga1 were also amplified, using the PCR primer sets Gga1KO5′F and Gga1KO5′R, and CB-5083 in vivo Gga1KO3′F and Gga1KO3′R. Fusion of the resulting PCR products; PHL with Gga1KO3′, and LEO with Gga1KO5′ was achieved by combining equimolar amounts (between 15 and 45 fmol) of each as template in a fusion PCR consisting of 5 μM each of PHLprimer and Gga1KO3′r, or LEOprimer and Gga1KO5′f, 1 U TaKaRa Ex TaqTM DNA polymerase and 1 × TaKaRa PCR Buffer (TAKARA BIO. INC., Japan), and 10 mM dNTPs in a final reaction volume of 20 μl.