Fig. 3

PaWOX2 is important for the development of normal early embryos (EEs). EEs were sampled from the control and lines XVE-WOX2i.12, 35S:WOX2i.2, 35S:WOX2i.3 and35S:WOX2i.4 after one week on maturation medium. a A.1, Normal EE from the control. Note the smooth surface of the embryonal mass and the distinct border between the embryonal mass and the suspensor. A.2, Aberrant EE from line 35S:WOX2i.4. Note the vacuolated cells in the outer cell layer of the embryonal mass and the lack of a distinct border between the embryonal mass and the suspensor. A.3, longitudinal section of a normal EE from the control. A5, longitudinal section of an aberrant EE from the control. A.4 and A.6, longitudinal sections of aberrant EEs from line 35S:WOX2i.4. Note the vacuolated cells in the embryonal mass and the lack of distinct protoderm, owing to aberrant cell division of the cells in the outer cell layer of the embryonal mass denoted by arrows ⇧. Bar, 50 μm. b Frequency of normal EEs in the control and lines XVE-WOX2i.12, 35S:WOX2i.2, 35S:WOX2i.3 and35S:WOX2i.4 [non-induced (−), induced (+) with β-estradiol]. More than 100 EEs were analyzed from each line (Additional file 6: Table S3). Data are presented as means ± SE of three biological replicates. Asterisks indicate significant differences in the frequency of normal embryos between the control (−) and the transgenic lines (one tail t-test, p < 0.05). c Boxplot presenting the average length of about 50 suspensor cells from EEs in the control and line 35S:WOX2i.4. Box plot shows the median (solid line), the 25th and 75th percentiles (boxes), and the 5th and 95th percentiles (error bars). The presented data are based on about 20 embryos. Asterisk indicates significant difference in the length of suspensor cells between the control and the transgenic line (ANOVA, p < 0.05)