Fig. 1: Shoot-derived miR2111 regulates lateral root (LR) numbers in L. japonicus (Lotus).

a miR2111 abundance fold change compared to Gifu wild type (wt(G)) plants, and (b) LR count in transgenic pUBQ1::MIR2111-3 (2111ox) expressing lines (#3, 4) compared to wt(G). Line #3 was used for further analysis. c–f 2111ox / wt(G) (shoot / root) grafts compared to wt(G) / wt(G) control grafts. c Example of grafted plants. Scale bars equal 1 cm. d miR2111 levels, (e) LR numbers and (f) TML levels in roots of respective grafts. a, d, f qRT-PCR analyses. RNA levels are relative to those of two reference genes. RNA was extracted from root (d, f) or shoot samples (a). a Adult plants grown in soil. b–g Plants were grown at 0 mM nitrate and evaluated or harvested after two weeks of cultivation. Student’s t-test (**p ≤ 0.01; ***p ≤ 0.001) (d–f) or analysis of variance (ANOVA) and post-hoc Tukey testing (p ≤ 0.05) (b), with distinct letters indicating significant differences. All experiments were in ecotype Gifu B-129 (wt(G)). Sample size, replicates and exact p-values are listed in the Source Data file. Dotplots show individual data points and a line indicating their average value. Boxplot central line shows median value, box limits indicate the 25th and 75th percentile. Whiskers extend 1.5 times the interquartile range, or to the last datapoint. Individual datapoints are represented by dots.