Fig. 5: The rootstock-to-scion mobility of CmoKARI1 mRNA confers cucumber chilling tolerance.

a The two-leaf-old wild-type cucumber seedlings grafted onto Super::CmoKARI1-GFP transgenic (TG) lines (TG#2 and #4) and wild-type cucumber seedlings transgenic lines. The lower panel image showed the graft union. Each graft combination includes n = 9 individual grafted plants. b Phenotypes of the two-leaf-old wild-type cucumber seedlings grafted onto Super::CmoKARI1-GFP transgenic lines (TG) (TG #2 and #4) and wild-type cucumber rootstocks before and after 6 h of chilling conditions. c Relative electrolyte permeability (REP) and MDA content of wild-type grafted onto TG #2/#4 and wild-type cucumber rootstocks at 6 h of chilling conditions. Each treatment includes three biological replicates, with 3–4 individual plants per replicate (mean ± s.d., one-way ANOVA followed by Duncan’s test, p < 0.05). Significance analysis of REP and MDA content was performed in separate groups at 28 °C and 4 °C. d RT-PCR identification of CmoKARI1-GFP in grafted WT/WT, WT/TG#2 and WT/TG#4 before and 6 h chilling conditions. R Rootstock, L Cucumber wild-type scion, Asterisks indicate movement fusion mRNA of CmoKARI1-GFP. n = 3 replicates were included, with each containing nine individual plants. Cucumber ACTIN7 was used as an internal reference. The samples derive from the same experiment, and the gels were processed in parallel. Source data are provided as a Source Data file.