Fig. 2

Lignin content and composition analysis in the 35-day-old stems of wild type, fpgs1 and related lines. a Alterations in total lignin content measured by the acetyl bromide (AcBr) method in fpgs1 lines, knockout mutants of the other two isoforms of fpgs (fpgs2 and fpgs3), and complemented FPGS1c. Results showed that total lignin was significantly less in the fpgs1 mutants and returned to the WT level in FPGS1c. Each data point was collected from five biological replicates. Each biological replicate had mature inflorescence stems of 20 individual plants (pooled). Means with different letters are statistically significant (Tukey’s test, P < 0.05). b Levels of S, G and H units were measured by the thioacidolysis method in all three mutant alleles of fpgs1 (fpgs1-1, fpgs1-2, fpgs1-3) and compared with the wild-type plants. For each biological replicate, mature inflorescence stems of 20 individual plants were pooled and assayed for lignin monomers. The data represent the average value of five biological repeats for the mutants and wild type (WT) (±SE). *Statistically significant difference; t test (P < 0.05)