Figure 10

Sub-cellular morphology of BI Pl maize floral cells accumulating anthocyanins. DIC images of a maize lemma from B-I/B-Peru plant over-accumulating anthocyanins. The above are extracted images from a time-lapse series (See Additional file 1: Movie 1). The time points on the images indicate the period from time 0' i.e. when the sample was mounted onto the stage and exposed to the microscope light. (A) and (B) occur earlier in the series while (D), (C) and (E) are in rapid succession (24 seconds apart). The large central inclusion corresponds to a vacuolar inclusion containing anthocyanins measuring 15 μm in diameter. The green, blue and black arrows indicate, in that order, sequential stages in the conversion of thin tubular anthocyanin-filled structures to thick sheet-like structures. The orange arrows indicate the next step, which is the conversion into round structures. The red arrows indicate large fusion bodies resulting from the fusion of the swollen round structures. The yellow arrows point to clear spherical structures devoid of anthocyanins. The bar represents 10 μm.