Fig. 5

Relative expression levels (mean from three replicates) of five putative candidate genes (1 to 5) at V1 (in red bars) and V3 (in blue bars) growth stages in phenotypically extreme maize accessions for root branching number trait from the GWAS panel. Values of fold difference are shown in mean ± standard deviation (error bar). Relative expression levels were calculated using the 2^(-∆∆ct) method. 1, 2, and 3 are positive regulating genes while 4 and 5 are negative regulating genes. a and b stand for high and low root branching number accessions, respectively. ***, **, and * indicate the significance level for P < 0.001, P < 0.01 and P < 0.05, respectively