Fig. 3

Results of the RNA-seq analyses of the three varieties of the Rhododendron sanguineum complex. Enrichment and Hierarchical clustering showing profiles of DEGs between RsH vs RsD, RsH vs RsS, and RsS vs RsD. a Histogram of differentially expressed genes via pairwise comparisons among the three varieties. b Venn diagram of differentially expressed genes. The sum of the numbers in the large section of each circle represents the total number of differentially expressed genes in pairwise variety comparisons; overlapping portions of the circles represent the differentially expressed genes shared between the compared varieties. c Scatterplot result of a KEGG pathway enrichment analysis of differentially expressed genes in three pairwise comparisons. Coloring of the p-values indicates the significance of the rich factor ranging from − 1 to 1. The rich factor is the ratio of DEG numbers annotated in a given pathway term to all gene numbers that were annotated in the pathway term, and greater rich factor values indicate greater intensiveness. The 19 top common pathway terms of three comparisons enriched in the KEGG database are listed in this figure. The size of the symbols represents the number count of DEGs. d Hierarchical clustering of normalized expression levels of all 40 candidate gene paralogs showing distinct gene expression profiles in pairwise comparisons of the R. sanguineum complex. Analyses were performed on the flower bud samples. Red indicates higher, while blue represents lower expression levels