Cereal grains are an important source of food and feed. To provide comprehensive spatiotemporal information about biological processes in developing seeds of cultivated barley (Hordeum vulgare L. subsp. vulgare), we performed a transcriptomic study of the embryo, endosperm, and seed maternal tissues collected from grains 4–32 days after pollination. Weighted gene co-expression network and motif enrichment analyses identified specific groups of genes and transcription factors (TFs) potentially regulating barley seed tissue development. We defined a set of tissue-specific marker genes and families of TFs for functional studies of the pathways controlling barley grain development. Assessing selected groups of chromatin regulators revealed that epigenetic processes are highly dynamic and likely play a major role during barley endosperm development. The repressive H3K27me3 modification is globally reduced in endosperm tissues and at specific genes related to development and storage compounds. Altogether, this atlas uncovers the complexity of developmentally regulated gene expression in developing barley grains.

中文翻译：

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发育中的大麦种子的转录组景观

谷物是食物和饲料的重要来源。为了提供有关栽培大麦（Hordeum vulgare L. subsp. vulgare）种子发育的生物过程的全面时空信息，我们对授粉后 4-32 天从谷物中收集的胚、胚乳和种子母体组织进行了转录组学研究。加权基因共表达网络和基序富集分析确定了可能调节大麦种子组织发育的特定基因组和转录因子（TF）。我们定义了一组组织特异性标记基因和转录因子家族，用于控制大麦籽粒发育途径的功能研究。评估选定的染色质调节因子组表明，表观遗传过程是高度动态的，并且可能在大麦胚乳发育过程中发挥重要作用。胚乳组织以及与发育和储存化合物相关的特定基因中的抑制性 H3K27me3 修饰全面减少。总而言之，该图谱揭示了大麦籽粒发育过程中发育调控基因表达的复杂性。