Fig. 1: qEL7 moderates grain yield by affecting the proportion of florets that developed into seeds during ear development.
From: An ethylene biosynthesis enzyme controls quantitative variation in maize ear length and kernel yield
qEL7Ye478 plants make longer ear with more kernels per row (a, scale bar = 1 cm), smaller IM (h, scale bar = 200 µm), and higher floret fertility (i, scare bar = 2 cm) than that in qEL7SL17. Phenotypes of ear length (b, p = 1.82 × 10−6), kernel number per row (c, p = 1.03 × 10−15), kernel row number (d, p = 0.30), ear diameter (e, p = 0.10), 100-kernel weight (f, p = 7.42 × 10−10) and ear weight (g, p = 1.90 × 10−11) in qEL7SL17 and qEL7Ye478; n = 39 and 32, respectively. IM length (j, p = 5.92 × 10−19) and diameter (k, p = 1.04 × 10−7) of qEL7SL17 and qEL7Ye478; n = 31 for both. Floret number per row (l, p = 1.24 × 10−20) and silky kernels per row (m, p = 9.04 × 10−17) of the immature ears before pollination in qEL7SL17 and qEL7Ye478; n = 21 and 24, respectively. For b−g and j−m data are presented as means ± SD. ***p-value ≤ 0.001, from a two-tailed, two-sample t-test; orange bar, qEL7SL17; blue bar, qEL7Ye478. For h, ears from five plants of each genotype were imaged by scanning electron microscope. n is the number of ears examined in (b−g) and (j−m).
