FIGURE 6.

The phenotype of OsZOU-1 over-expression lines. (A) The morphology of WT and OsZOU-1 over-expressed plants OXZ-5 and OXZ-4 in the jointing-booting stage were photographed. Scale bars = 8 cm. The OXZ-5 plant (54.48 cm) and OXZ-4 plant (47.52 cm) were shorter than the WT plant (81.28 cm). (B) The leaves of OXZ-5 and OXZ-4 curled upward along the leaf margin before booting and were narrow, while some leaves of OXZ-4 were uneven. Following booting, the upward curling leaf blade phenotype changed. (C) The glumes and kernels of OXZ-5 and OXZ-4 were narrower than WT. (D) Spikes of WT and OXZ-5 plant at the mature stage. Scale bar = 1 cm. The over-expression of OsZOU-1 led to reduced fertility. (E) The relative expression levels of OsZOU-1 in unopened flowers of WT and transgenic lines. OsActin1 was used as the internal control and the expression level of OsZOU-1 in unopened flowers of WT plant was set as 1. The expression levels of OsZOU-1 in unopened flowers of OXZ-4 and OXZ-5 were respectively 206 and 152 times higher than WT. Error bars correspond to the SDs calculated from four technical replicates on pools of eight unopened flowers from the WT, OXZ-4, or OXZ-5 plants, respectively. (F) The germination situation of WT and OXZ-5 seeds that were put in water six days previously. These results show that the germination of OXZ-5 seeds was difficult and inconsistent. Scale bar = 0.5 cm. (G) Heritability of the narrow kernel phenotype in OXZ-5 transgenic plants. (H) Cell numbers and lengths at the widest point of the glumes of WT and over-expressed plants. Results are means ± SD (n = 10); Student’s t-test value: ^∗∗p < 0.01.