Expression analysis of miR168 and pre-miR168a during the response to B. dothidea infection. (A) Stem–loop RT-qPCR analysis of mature miR168. Amplification was normalized to 5.8 s rRNA transcripts. (B) RT-qPCR analysis of pre-miR168a. The expression of EF-1α was used as the internal control for normalization. The data presented represent the relative expression level compared with the corresponding mock-treated controls at each time point. RT-qPCR analysis included three technical replicates of each biological replicate. Significant differences between each of the time points and 0 hpi are indicated by asterisks (*P ≤ 0.05; **P ≤ 0.01). (C) Quantification of B. dothidea growth on infected M. hupehensis leaves. The colonization coefficient was calculated by the relative biomass of the pathogen and host, with a correction (see the Materials and Methods). The data represent the mean ± SD of three biological replicates (n = 3).