Figure 2.

Expression of Bl, GOB, LeWUS and Ls in tomato pedicels. (A) Expression of Bl, GOB, LeWUS and Ls during pedicel development. Expression of the genes in pedicels at 5 and 3 days before anthesis, at anthesis and at 2 days to 3 weeks after anthesis was examined by qRT-PCR. Levels of transcripts of each gene are shown as fold-change values compared to the sample harvested at anthesis. (B) Expression of Bl, GOB, LeWUS and Ls in response to an abscission stimulus. Anthesis flowers were removed from the pedicels to induce abscission and then the pedicel AZs were harvested at 0 hours, 12 hours, 1 day and 2 days after flower removal. The expression of Bl, GOB, LeWUS and Ls was examined by qRT-PCR. Error bars indicate standard deviation of biological triplicates. At 1 day after flower removal, approximately 10% of pedicels were abscised and then the rate increased to 36% at 2 days after (Additional file 8). Both attached and detached pedicels were examined simultaneously. As positive controls, expression analyses were performed for Cel5 and TAPG4, which are up-regulated after flower removal [27]. Levels of transcripts of each gene are shown as fold-change values compared to the 0 hour sample. Error bars indicate standard deviation of biological triplicates. (C) Expression of Bl, GOB, Ls, and LeWUS in a flower pedicel AZ at anthesis. Dig-labeled antisense probes were hybridized to serial sections of a pedicel AZ at anthesis. Transcripts of these genes, indicated by arrowheads, were found in several lines of cells within the vascular bundles. The upper left panel is a schematic of an AZ. The control section was stained with a hematoxylin and eosin stain solution. AZ; abscission zone, Co; Cortex, V; Vascular bundle, and Cp; Central parenchyma.