Key adaptive plant traits and gene networks in rice subjected to moderate water deficit in the reproductive stage

Three plants per genotype and per treatment were sampled. On each plant, the first internode (below the peduncle) was collected from the primary tiller generated at the first leaf phytomer counting from the base. Samples with a RNA integrity number (RIN) value > 8 were deemed acceptable and sequenced using the Illumina TruSeq RNA protocol (Illumina Inc., San Diego, CA, USA). Sequencing was conducted at the INRAE Genotoul platform, on a single lane of a flow cell on Illumina HiSeqTM 3000, as paired-ends reads (length 150 bp).