Fig. 2

GhWIN2 regulation of cuticle development. (a) Expression of genes involved in cuticle biosynthesis in four-week-old WT and transgenic Arabidopsis plants. Arabidopsis elongation factor-1-α gene (EF-1-α) was the endogenous reference for normalization. Data represent means ± SD for three biological replicates. Student’s t-test; * P < 0.05, ** P < 0.01. (b) Expression of the putative cuticle biosynthesis-related genes in cotton plants 14 days after infiltration. (c) SEM images of the stems of the WT and transgenic Arabidopsis plants. (Scale bars in main image, 50 μm; scale bars in insets, 10 μm) (d) TEM images of the cuticle of the upper leaf surface (scale bar: 500 nm). CW, cell wall; white arrows mark the cuticle. Images were taken at 50,000× magnification. (e) The thickness of the cuticle layer from the leaf upper surface (d). Data are presented as means ± SD from at least four independent biological replicates. Asterisks denote Student’s t test significance compared with WT plants (* P < 0.05; ** P < 0.01)