Figure 7.

Phenotypical Changes in BPBT RNAi Knockout Petunia Plants.

BPBT RNAi-10 knockout transgenic plants show increased flower size (A) and larger, more rounded leaves (B) than control and BPBT RNAi-3 knockdown plants. Increased flower size is manifested in increased flower weight (C), and this consistently caused a significant increase in all knockouts (6, 7, 8, 9, 10, and 12) in comparison with controls (C) and knockdowns (2 and 3). Knockouts also showed significantly increased stem diameter (D) and internode lengths (E). Each point in (C) to (E) represents the average of 7, 15, and 13 measurements, respectively. Bars indicate sd. These morphological changes are further illustrated in panels (H) and (I). BPBT RNAi-10 seeds are also larger and darker than controls (WT) (F). DMACA staining of both control and RNAi seeds is shown in (G).