Fig. 2. Characterization of Cenh3.1 and Cenh3.2 KO plants of cowpea induced by CRISPR/Cas9-based genome editing and of cowpea CENH3 variant-specific antibodies.

a Plant growth phenotype of Cenh3.1, Cenh3.2 KO, and wild-type plants. Note the retarded growth of Cenh3.1 KO plants. Cenh3.1 KO plants produce no seeds, while Cenh3.2 KO plants from seeds (insert). b Indirect immunostaining of isolated nuclei from wild-type, Cenh3.1, and Cenh3.2 KO plants with anti-CENH3.1 (green), anti-CENH3.2 (red), and anti-CENPC (green) antibodies. c, d Comparative western blot of isolated nuclear proteins from wild-type, Cenh3.1 and Cenh3.2 KO plants with c anti-CENH3.1 and d anti-CENH3.2. Arrows indicate the position of the missing CENH3 band in KO plants. d Anti-histone H3 was used for positive control.