Fig. 3

Formation of binucleated and endomitotic cells in the primary root of gsl8 mutants. a-h Comparison of the number of nuclei per cell in the elongation zone of the root between WT (a), cytokinesis-defective mutants; scd1 (b), keule (c), korrigan (d) and knolle (e), and gsl8 mutants; gsl8–1 (f), gsl8–2 (g), essp8 (h). Binucleated cells are shown by white arrowheads. Propidium iodide was used to stain both nuclei and cell walls. i-l Comparison of centromere numbers (white arrowheads) in the primary roots of WT (i) and gsl8 mutants; essp8 (j), gsl8–2 (k) and gsl8–4 (l). m-p Comparison of polyploid cells in essp8 mutant at different ages in the primary root cells of five- and ten-day-old WT (m-n), and essp8 (o-p), respectively. Polyploid cells are shown by white arrowheads. q Quantification of the centromere number per nucleus in the WT and three gsl8 mutants. r Quantification of centromere numbers in five- and ten-day-old primary root of WT and essp8. q-r Data were acquired from at least ten cells in an individual seedling and three biological replicates. The boxes signify the upper (grey) and lower (black) quartiles, and the median is represented by a short black line within the box for each plant line. The upper and lower “whiskers” represent the entire spread of the data. Dotted lines indicate significant differences (**P < 0.01 using Student’s t-Test) between the two samples. Scale bars = 20 μm (a-h), 10 μm (i-p)