Fig. 3: Pattern of auxin perception is mostly robust.

a Method for quantifying spatial patterns of auxin perception. mDII signal was used to make a surface mesh, with which mDII signal in the upper epidermis was extracted, and an epidermal nuclear mesh was created. The mesh was used to quantify mDII and DII signal in each nucleus of the upper epidermis. mDII/DII ratio was calculated to reveal auxin perception in each cell. Mean and CV of the spatial pattern of mDII/DII ratio were calculated similar to Fig. 1f, to reflect the mean and variability of auxin perception patterns across buds. b mDII/DII ratio in three representative buds of each stage. Note the patterns are robust across different buds. Scale bar, 20 µm. c Illustration of representative patterns. CB cryptic bract, Ad adaxial region, L incipient lateral sepals, O incipient outer sepal, I incipient inner sepal, i incipient primordia of the inner whorls. Mean (d) and variability (CV) (e, f) of mDII/DII patterns calculated from all buds imaged: stage 1a, n = 16; stage 1b, n = 10; stage 2a, n = 13; stage 2b, n = 12; stage 2c, n = 6. In (f), each data point is a CV value at an (x,y) tile of a given stage. Lines show quartiles. Letters represent statistical significance in pairwise two-sided permutation tests with Bonferroni’s p-value adjustments. Adjusted p-values: 1a-1b, 0.053, 1a-2a, 0.000, 1a-2b, 0.000, 1a-2c, 0.000, 1b-2a, 0.222, 1b-2b, 0.000, 1b-2c, 0.000, 2a-2b, 0.000, 2a-2c, 0.003, 2b-2c, 1.000. Note that the variability in mDII/DII ratio is much lower than DR5 and also decreases with developmental stage. Also see Supplementary Fig. 2. Source data are provided as a Source Data file.