OsAP79 enhanced sclerenchyma layer thickness
To determine if the cell wall was altered in leaf sheaths at the seedling (30 days) and adult (75 days) stages, we measured the sclerenchyma layer thickness of OE, knockout, and NIP lines. The average sclerenchyma layer thickness was 34.3 μm, 36.5 μm, 24.1μm, 25.4 μm, and 29.2 μm for lines OE79-9, OE79-12, CR79-11, CR79-18, and NIP, respectively, at the seedling stage (Figure 5a and 5c). The same result was detected at the adult stage (Figure 5b and 5d). The sclerenchyma layer of OE lines was significantly thicker than that of NIP lines, but all of them were significantly thicker than that of knockout lines. The results indicate that OsAP79 can positively regulate sclerenchyma layer thickness to resist BPH.