In vitro pollen germination and growth assay.

<p>(A) Wild-type pollen. (B) <i>rupo+/-</i> pollen. Red arrowheads indicate ruptured pollen tubes. (C) Pollen germination rate and percentage of pollen tube integrity. The results are presented as mean±s.e. (D) Time-lapse images of wild-type pollen germinating on agarose medium. White arrows indicate the growth of a wild-type pollen tube. (E) Time-lapse images of bi-allelic pollen germinating on agarose medium. Note that <i>rupo</i> pollen tubes burst and released cell contents in seconds without forming any visible pollen tubes.Time is indicated in minutes:seconds format. Scale bars, 50 μm. (see also <a href="http://www.plosgenetics.org/article/info:doi/10.1371/journal.pgen.1006085#pgen.1006085.s019" target="_blank">S1</a> and <a href="http://www.plosgenetics.org/article/info:doi/10.1371/journal.pgen.1006085#pgen.1006085.s020" target="_blank">S2</a> Movies in the supplementary material).