Figure 2

Leaf and cell size. A) Size of the rosette leaves of five-week-old plants. Rosette leaves of xi-2/xi-k and xi-1/xi-2/xi-k in comparison with wild type (WT). Leaves on the lower panel originate from the rosettes on upper panel. Bar = 10 mm. B) Mean size of leaf blades and petioles (±SD). The 5th to 10th rosette leaves were used for the size measurements. Note shorter petioles and smaller leaf blades of the xi-2/xi-k and xi-1/xi-2/xi-k plants in comparison with WT. Asterisks indicate statistical significance (** p < 0.01, Repeated Measures ANOVA with Dunn’s Multiple Comparisons Test, n = 18). C) Mean cell areas of pavement and mesophyll cells of five-week-old rosette leaves (±SD). In the case of xi-2/xi-k and xi-1/xi-2/xi-k the cell area is smaller compared to WT (* p < 0.05 and ** p < 0.01, One-Way ANOVA with Dunnett’s Multiple Comparisons Test). D) Shape of pavement cells of leaf abaxial epidermis. Note less extended lobes of the xi-1/xi-2/xi-k pavement cells in comparison with WT (black cells on the image). Bar = 50 μm. E) Circularity values of pavement cells on leaf abaxial epidermis (mean ± SD). Circularity reflects the ratio of pavement cell area to the perimeter. Cells with values near one are more circular, meaning that xi-1/xi-2/xi-k cells have more round morphology than WT cells (*** p < 0.001, unpaired t-test with Welch correction, n = 13-16).