Total RNA from L. japonicus tissue was extracted by adapting the hot borate buffer protocol (Wan and Wilkins, 1994). Briefly, plant tissue was ground under liquid nitrogen and homogenized with an extraction buffer (2,000 mM sodium tetraborate decahydrate, 30 mM EGTA, 5 mM EDTA, 1% SDS, 1% sodium deoxycholate; adding before use 100 mL of dithiothreitol, 35 mL of
b-mercaptoethanol, and 0.1 g of polyvinylpyrrolidone-40 per 5 mL of buffer).Samples were Proteinase K digested and treated with TRIzol-LS reagent(Invitrogen) following the manufacturer’s instructions. RNA from Arabidopsis was extracted with Tri-Reagent (Sigma) according to the manufacturer’s instructions.