Figure.6 The silencing of CaHSFA5 decreased thermotolerance of pepper plants but did not significantly affect the resistance of pepper plants to RSI. A. Schematic diagram of the fragments in the CDS or 3’UTR of CaHSFA5 used for VIGS vectors (TRV:CaHSFA5-CDS and TRV:CaHSFA5-3’UTR ) construction. B. The silencing of CaHSFA5 decreased basal and acquired thermotolerance of pepper plants. C. The silencing of CaHSFA5decreased basal and acquired thermotolerance of pepper plants. D. The silencing of CaHSFA5 decreased Fv/Fm of pepper leaves upon HTS.E. The silencing of CaHSFA5 decreased △F/Fm of pepper leaves upon HTS. F. The silencing of CaHSFA5 did not affect the resistance of pepper plants to RSI. G. The silencing of CaHSFA5 by VIGS did not affect disease index of pepper plants upon RSI. H. The expression levels of CaHSFA5 and CaNAC2c showed that silencingCaHSFA5 and overexpressing CaNAC2c were successful. I.CaHSFA5 silencing significantly decreased the expression of thermotolerance related CaHSP24 and CaHSP70 in pepper plants. J. HR mimic cell death induced by CaNAC2c-TO at room temperature was not affected by the silence of CaHSFA5 , andCaNAC2c-TO did not induce cell death at 37 ℃. K. CaHSFA5did not affect the expression of CaDEF1 promoted by CaNAC2c. Data presented are means ± standard error of four replicates. In C, the data were counted based on 12 pepper plants. In C, E, G, H, I and K, data presented are means ± standard error (SE) of four replicates, different uppercase letters above the bars indicated significant differences among means (P < 0.01), as calculated with Fisher’s protected LSD test.