Figure 4.

Vascular tissue in rice stems. A and B, Stem cross-sections of wild-type (WT; A) and OX (B) plants stained with toluidine blue. C, Number of sieve tube element cells. Data are means ± se; bars with different letters indicate significant differences at P < 0.05 (Fisher's protected lsd test). The photograph and data are representative of sections taken from at least three different plants and eight to 10 sections in each plant from 4-week-old rice plants. BSC, Bundle sheath cells; CC, companion cells; MX, metaxylem; PXL, protoxylem lacuna; STEC, sieve tube element cells; XPC, xylem parenchyma cells.