Fig. 4

Organ-specific impact of drought stress on cysteine biosynthesis in maize. a-d Extractable enzymatic activities of serine acetyltransferase (a, b, SERAT) and O-acetylserine(thiol)lyase (c, d, OASTL) from leaves (a, c) and roots (c, d) of control (black) and drought-stressed plants (white). e-h Steady state levels of the cysteine precursors OAS (e, f) and sulfide (g, h) in leaves (e, g) and roots (f, h) of maize plants suffering from water restriction. Data are means ± SD of five to seven individual replicates. Asterisks indicates statistical differences as determined by the unpaired t-test (*, 0.05 ≥ p > 0.01; **, 0.01 ≥ p > 0.001; ***, p ≤ 0.001)