Fig. 5: C-terminal truncation of AHA2 influences root hair growth.

a Maximum intensity projection of AHA2 in mCitAHA2 root hairs. Yellow: mCitrine-AHA2. Scale bar: 100 µm. b Photons from mCitrine-AHA2 root hairs were counted. A significant difference was detected in the signal intensity at the base of the root hair compared to the shanks and the tip (n = 108; ****P  <  0.0001; one-way ANOVA with Tukey’s multiple comparison test). Violin plots show the probability density. The dashed centerlines indicate the medians and the two dotted lines the quartiles, and the black circles show each data point. c Representative images of WT and mutant plant root hairs grown for 3 days on ½ MS medium. Scale bar: 500 µm. d 3.5-day-old mutant root hairs are progressively shorter compared to the WT upon C-terminal truncation (n ≥ 874; ****P < 0.0001; one-way ANOVA with Tukey’s multiple comparison test). e The mutant root hairs first grow faster than those of the WT but after around 300 min the mutant root hairs stop growing while those of the WT continues to grow for an additional 100 min (n ≥ 9, error bars show SD). Inset: enlargement of the period during which the WT root hairs become longer than those of the mutants (boxed). f WT plants were grown for 2.5 days on ½ MS plates with different pH levels. As the pH decreased, the root hairs became progressively shorter (n ≥ 774; ****P  <  0.0001; one-way ANOVA with Tukey’s multiple comparison test). g When WT and mutant plants were grown for 2.5 days on a very well-buffered ½ MS medium with 10 mM MES, the difference shown in panel d was reversed and the mutant root hairs became longer than those of the WT (n ≥ 1036; *P  <  0.05; ****P  <  0.0001; one-way ANOVA with Tukey’s multiple comparison test).