npr.1.G2E.74
To test how plants respond to a high level of standing genetic variation in a generalist necrotrophic pathogen, we infected Arabidopsis with 96 genetically diverse natural B. cinerea isolates. This was done by infecting three Arabidopsis genotypes, including wild-type Columbia-0 (Col-0) and two immune-deficient mutants, coi1-1 (jasmonate insensitive) and npr1-1 (defective in some SA-mediated defenses), to allow us to measure the quantitative influence of the SA and JA defense pathways in the response to pathogen diversity and their role in canalization of defense responses. Defense response traits, such as lesion size, camalexin production, and the plants transcriptomic response were measured in a replicated and randomized complete block design, which allowed for all Arabidopsis _ B. cinerea genotypic combinations to be tested.