Fig. 8

Artificial aging-induced changes in seed germination rate and RT-qPCR analysis of the gene expression levels in rice cultivars ‘Kasalath’ and ‘Nipponbare’. (A–D) Seed germination rate and seed-specific expression levels of miR164c, miR5075 and the respective target genes OMTN2 and Os02g0817500 in Kasalath (A, C) and Nipponbare (B, D). Data represent mean ± SD (n = 3). Significant differences between the unaged and seeds of each cultivar with different degrees of aging were determined using Student’s t-test (*P < 0.05, **P < 0.01, ***P < 0.001). In (C, D), the expression level of the gene of interest in unaged WT seeds was set as 1