Figure 3

Differentially expressed miRNAs between superior and inferior spikelets during rice grain filling. (A- E). Bar graphs reflecting expressional fold changes of selected miRNAs between superior and inferior spikelets at 10DAF (A), 15DAF (B), 21DAF (C), 27DAF (D), and 35DAF (E), respectively. Expressional fold changes were conducted following detailed descriptions in methods and materials. Values in fold changes and their ranges are indicated by the ratio of miRNA expressions of inferior over that of superior spikelets from less than (−) to more than (+) the equal expression (0) between inferior and superior spikelets. Only miRNAs whose expressions were higher than 10 TPM in each of the ten databases were selected for calculating their expressional fold changes and only the absolute value changes higher than 2 were listed in the figures. (F- G). Heat maps showing the expression levels [log2(normalized expression)] of selected miRNAs that were highly expressed in superior spikelets (F) and inferior spikelets (G) at different rice grain filling stages (P < 0.05, n = 5, two-tailed paired t-test).