Fig. 4

Functional analysis of the ARGOS and ARL in regulating ethylene sensitivity. a Increased expression levels of ARGOS in CaMV 35S:ARGOS lines and of ARL in CaMV 35S:ARL lines compared to wild type. Two independent transgenic lines (#1, #2) were analyzed for each construct, expression levels being examined in green seedlings following 2-h treatment in the absence or presence of 10 μL L⁻¹ ethylene. β-tubulin served as a loading control. Primers were designed to specifically amplify the transgene (trg), the native gene (nat), or the total expression of native and transgene together (tot). b Phenotypic analysis of 4-day-old dark-grown seedlings grown in the absence or presence of 1 μL L⁻¹ ethylene. Growth of transgenic lines were compared to the the ethylene-insensitive mutant etr1-1 and the constitutive ethylene response mutant ctr1-2. Seedlings were examined for significant differences in growth based on the Tukey multiple range test among the means on the analysis of variance (p < 0.05; n = 10). Seedling measurements designated with the same letter exhibit no significant difference. Error bars indicate SD. c Ethylene dose response curves for hypocotyl growth in mutant lines compared to wild-type dark-grown seedlings. Error bars indicate SD (n = 10). Statistical significance of wild type to the transgenic lines was performed by an analysis of variance applying Bonferroni correction post-test comparisons (* p < 0.05)