Figure 2.

Pollen germination rate and vitality.

(a) The pollen germination rate of SlSUT2-RNAi plants is significantly reduced. Asterisks indicate significant differences between WT and RNAi lines (*p < 0,05). (b) Viability of pollen was analyzed by aniline blue staining. Viable pollen grains show bright blue fluorescence whereas non-viable pollen are not stained (red circles). (c) Pollen viability of all tested SlSUT2-RNAi plants is reduced compared to WT pollen. The viability can be rescued by epi-brassinolide treatment in one out of three transgenic lines. A Tukey HSD test was performed with alpha = 0.05.