Gene expression analysis in pre- and early post-anthesis stage ovules of Citrus sinensis

Nucellar embryony is a form of apomixis found in citrus where somatic nucellar cells differentiate into embryos and are included in the seed resulting from the normal sexual process. The nucellar cells giving rise to adventive embryo start proliferating prior to anthesis and fully differentiate obtaining nourishment from sexually derived endosperm. To identify transcripts differentially expressed during nucellar embryo initiation we have taken RNA samplesfrom different developing stages of ovules from polyembryonic (cv. Vaniglia Sanguigno) and monoembryonic (cv. Temple) cultivars. We used microarray for a detailed analysis of global gene expression during nucellar embryony initiation and development. We have further validated the differentially expressed genes using qRT-PCR.

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