Figure 3.

Functional loss of AP‐3 affects the growth but not the guidance of pollen tubes in vivo. A to J, Representative Aniline Blue staining of wild-type pistils emasculated and hand pollinated with pollen from the wild type (A and F), ap-3δ (B and G), ap-3β (C and H), ap-3µ (D and I), and ap-3σ (E and J) at 9 HAP. Arrows point at the front of in vivo growing pollen tubes; arrowheads point at the micropyle where pollen tubes arrive. The relative distance that pollen tubes travel within the transmitting tract is quantified with 15 pistils, and the results are shown at the bottom of A to E (means ± sd). Each mutant is significantly different from the wild type in the length of in vivo growing pollen tubes (one-way ANOVA, Dunnett’s multiple comparison test, P < 0.05). K to O, SEM images of wild-type ovules hand pollinated with pollen from the wild type (K), ap-3δ (L), ap-3β (M), ap-3µ (N), and ap-3σ (O) at 9 HAP. Pollen tubes growing toward the micropyle are false-colored pink. Bars = 200 μm for A to E, 100 μm for F to J, and 20 μm for K to O.