An NSP2 miR171c-resistant version was generated using primers 59-tTT-
aAGgCGcACgAggATaACaCGAGCCAGTTCaCGGT-39 (reverse) and 59-TtAT ccTcGTgCGcCTtAAaGAGTTGGTGTCCCACACCGAC-39 (forward) carrying silent mutations (lowercase letters) in and near the miR171c complementary region of the coding sequence with primers 59-caccCTCAGGCATGGAAATGGA-39 (forward) and 59-TTCTGTTTTCGGAAGGTCAA-39 (reverse),respectively, to PCR amplify mutated 59 and 39 fragments of the gene from L. japonicus leaf DNA (ecotype Gifu). A full-length version was obtained from these using an overlapping PCR strategy with primers 59-caccCTCAGGCATGGAAATGGA-39 (forward) and 59-TTCTGTTTTCGGAAGGTCAA-39 (reverse). The same primers and template were used to isolate full-length wild-type NSP2. Both fragments were subsequently cloned into pENTR/D/TOPO (Invitrogen) and transferred to modified pIV10 vector (Stougaard et al.,1987)equipped with a Gateway destination cassette (Invitrogen) preceded by a 405-nucleotide cauliflower mosaic virus 35S promoter fragment (59-CGTACCCCTACTCCAAAAATG.TTCATTTGGAGAGGACAGCCC-39). As a control, the Gateway destination cassette was eliminated from the pIV10 plasmid carrying the 35S promoter fragment. The resulting pIV10-based constructs were introduced into A. rhizogenes AR1193 via triparental mating (Stougaard et al., 1987)and used for hairy root induction.