Figure 5.

Percentage of Planar Organelle Area Invested in Vascular Sheath Cells Is Equivalent to that in Proto-Kranz Grass Species

Percentage of total planar chloroplast (top) and mitochondrial (bottom) area in vascular sheath cells of wild-type (WT) and transgenic rice lines, plus PACMAD grasses Dicanthelium oligosanthes (C₃), Steinchisma laxum (proto-Kranz [PK]), S. hians (C₂), and Homolepis aturensis (C₂). Values are mean ± SEM (n = 3). The trend toward proto-Kranz correlates with levels of transgene expression. Both ZmUBI_pro:ZmG2 and S. laxum (PK) have significantly greater investment of chloroplasts and mitochondria in vascular sheath tissue than WT by a one-tailed t test (p < 0.05). No significant differences were observed between ZmUBI_pro:ZmG2 and S. laxum (PK) by one-tailed or paired t tests (p > 0.2). See Figures S1 and S2 and Table S1 for transgene details and transcript levels in lines examined, Table S5 for a complete set of measurements, and Figure S4 for equivalent graphs of C₃, PK, and C₂Flaveria spp.