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.