Diurnal expression data from developing barley caryopses

Caryopses of barley (Hordeum vulgare), like all other cereal seeds, are complex sink organs optimized for storage starch accumulation and embryo development. Their development from early stages after pollination to late stages of seed ripening has been studied in great detail. However, information on the caryopses’ diurnal adaptation to changes in light, temperature and alterations in phloem-supplied carbon and nitrogen remained unknown. In this study, we applied the 22K Barley1 GeneChip microarray to investigate diurnal gene regulation events of barley caryopses at 11 to 12 days post anthesis. Developing barley caryopses were harvested at different time-points of a day (at 7:00 AM, 2:00 PM, 5:00 PM and 8:00 PM) including dark samples (6:00 AM and 10:00 PM). Pooled caryopses (form 3 Plants) from the respective time points were used for RNA extraction and hybridization on Affymetrix microarrays (Barley1 GeneChip; GEO accsession GPL1340). Biological replicates were performed.