RNA-seq analysis of switchgrass phytomers at two vegetative stages

The early-flowering genotype S041 from the upland ‘Summer’ cultivar, late-flowering genotype B901 from the lowland ‘Ellsworth’ cultivar, and two of their F2 progeny (early-flowering individual 7071 and late-flowering individual 7055) were used in this experiment. Phytomer tissues consisting of internode, node sheath and leaf blade were collected on April 24th (A) and May 8th (B) of 2017, representing V1 to V2 and V2 to V3 of vegetative growth stages, respectively. The phytomer tissue were cut at approximately 5 cm under the node from the well-grown tiller in the middle of the crown of the plant. At the first (A) and second harvest (B), each genotype sample consisted of three phytomers from three tillers per plant, and each sample had three independent field replicates (9 phytomers). A total of 24 libraries (four genotypes with three replicates of each and two times) were used for transcriptome sequencing.