Fig. 3: CmEIN2 is required both for carpel development and stamina inhibition.

a Sexual morphs of melon plants across combinations of alleles at different sex loci. b qPCR analysis of CmACS11, CmACS7 and CmWIP1 in Mono_WT female(♀) or male(♂) flowers, and in male flowers (♂) of CAM106(ein2) collected from main stems (MS), or lateral branches (LB). c qPCR analysis of CmACS7 and CmEIN2 in pistillate flowers of wip1,and wip1/ein2 double mutants. P-values from an unpaired two-tailed Student’s t-test are indicated in (b, c). Data in (b, c) are mean ± SE. (n  =  3 biological replicates). d, e Ovary shape index(d) and fruit shape index(e) of different melon genotypes. Different letters indicate significant differences based on a one-way ANOVA with Tukey’s multiple comparisons test. Data in (d, e) are mean ± SE. n is indicated for number of biological replicates in (d, e). f Ovary and fruit phenotypes of the genotypes shown in (d and e). Scale bar in the flower panel = 1 cm. Scale bar in the fruit panel = 5 cm. g Gene-wise hierarchical clustering heat map of differentially expressed genes (DEGs, adjusted P value < 0.05) between female (F, wip1 mutant), hermaphrodite (H, wip1/ein2 double mutant), and males (M, ein2 mutant) flowers. DEGs (adjusted P value < 0.05) showing segregation into 4 clusters: stamen suppression (S−), stamen development (S+), carpel development (C+) and carpel suppression (C−). The z-score scale represents mean-subtracted regularized log-transformed read counts. GO terms specifying the biological process are shown at the right of the panels. Source data are provided as a Source Data file.