Figure 5

Targeting CESA expression by means of artificial microRNAs. (A, B) Schematic of the constructs used. The hairpin model illustrates the 21-mer sequence of each microRNA construct and red letters indicate the mismatch in each hairpin recognized by the DICER complex. LB, left border; Ubi prom, maize ubiquitin promoter; Hyg, hygromycin phosphotransferase gene; NOS, nopeline synthase terminator; RB, right border. (C, D) Relative levels of transcript measured by RT-QPCR. Reference genes are given in methods. Stem tissue was collected at the same development stage when inflorescence was just emerging from the flag leaf. Three to five individuals from three to four independent transgenic lines were analyzed for each construct. The boxes show interquartile range, the whiskers show the outer quartile edge, and the black line represents the median of each distribution. Open circles represent outliers, when present. * Denotes significance at the 5% level.