Fig. 2.

Spatiotemporal patterns of accumulation of miR2275 and 24-nt phasiRNAs in litchi. a Abundances of miR2275 and 24-nt phasiRNAs as indicated in the key (upper left) across developmental stages of litchi flowers. The heat map corresponds to the abundance of phasiRNAs at each 24-PHAS locus and dots indicate the summed abundances as indicated. MDS morphological differentiation stage, FFB female flower buds, MFB male flower buds. b In situ hybridization of miR2275 and a representative 24-nt phasiRNA in anthers from litchi flower buds. hsa-miR122 is a human miRNA used as a negative control, while the “no label” images have no labeled probe and serve as another negative control. Density of yellow denotes the sRNA hybridization signal; blue is autofluorescence of tissues surrounding the anthers. The diameter for litchi anthers increases as it develops from premeiotic to meiotic stage. At the premeiotic stage, the stamens are less than 1000  µm in diameter. Scale bar = 50 µm for all images