Fig. 2: Lignification and tensile mechanical properties of mutant inflorescence stems.

a Illustration of the positions of basal segments A (0–2 cm), B (2–4 cm), and C (4–6 cm) cut from the Arabidopsis plant. b 1D ¹³C CP spectra collected on the three segments of the same stem of WT Arabidopsis grown to 16 cm. The samples are referred to as WT16A (black), WT16B (blue), and WT16C (yellow). All spectra are normalized with respect to the highest 72-ppm carbohydrate peak (asterisk). Zoomed-in view was provided for the lignin aromatic region, showing the changes in the rigid lignin content. c Comparison of the aromatic region of 1D ¹³C CP spectra collected on segment-A from the 16-cm plants of WT Arabidopsis and two mutants, fah1 and ref3. Overlap of the spectra of the A, B, and C segments of fah1 is also shown in the bottom panel. All spectra are normalized by the highest 72-ppm carbohydrate peak, although the carbohydrate region is not included in this figure. d Lignin content in the rigid fraction detected by CP within different WT and mutant samples. e Quantitative analysis of overall lignin content from ¹³C DP spectra measured with long recycle delays of 35 s. f Averaged stress-strain curves (0–4.5% strain range) of monotonic tensile loading tests of basal inflorescence stems of different genotypes. Error bars represent SEM. g Stem segment strength and h modulus at the 4.5%–5% strain interval for the basal inflorescence stems of different genotypes. Both scatterplots show the mean with a horizontal line, while the error bars represent s.d. (n = 8). Source data are provided as a Source data file.