Fig. 6

Anthocyanins improve drought resistance of leaf explants. (A) Leaf explants of the 9-day-old Col-0, tt4-11, and ctr1-1 seedlings were incubated on B5-agar plates for 5 days. Explants were placed on filter paper for 2 h to induce drought stress and then 2 ml of distilled water was supplemented for recovery. Relative intensity of leaf color was measured at 2 days after recovery using ImageJ software. Three biological replicates were averaged. Letters indicate groups that are statistically significantly different from each other (P < 0.05, Tukey’s test). Each replicate contains 12–14 explants. Size markers indicate 0.25 cm. Whiskers indicate + SD. (B) Rooting rates of ethylene signaling and anthocyanin biosynthesis mutants. Leaf explants of the 9-day-old Col-0, tt4-11, ctr1-1, and ein2-1 seedlings were incubated on B5-agar plates up to 14 days. Three biological replicates were averaged and statistically analyzed using Student’s t-test (*P < 0.05; difference from Col-0). Each replicate contains 20–25 explants. Size markers indicate 0.5 cm. Whiskers indicate ± SD