Figure 6.

Phenotypic Characterization of cmt3-Defective Plants.

Whole-mount clearing of wild-type (Ler) and homozygous mutant (cmt3^−/−) seeds obtained from self-pollinated plants. All images are at the same magnification.

(A) cmt3 embryos display a significant proportion of abnormal divisions (P < 0.01, t test) observed from the two- to four-cell to the 32-cell stages, prominently at the transition zone between the suspensor and the embryo (arrow). The frequency of wild-type and defective embryos is indicated as a percentage of total seed counts at the bottom (Ler self, n = 451, and cmt3^−/− self, n = 216).

(B) At the globular stage, cmt3 embryos recover a wild-type phenotype, similar to Ler. Bar = 10 μm.