Circadian gene expression regulation contributes to seedling biomass heterosis of Jingke968

The circadian clock plays a role in heterosis. Jingke968 is an elite maize variety (hybrid) produced by crossing Jing724 ( the maternal parent) and Jing92 (the parental line). To investigate the molecular basis of circadian gene expression regulation underlying seedling heterosis of Jingke968, the 3rd leaf RNAs of Jing968 and its parents' seedlings were isolated for RNA-seq analysis at 8 time-points per day for 3 days, such as 7:00, 10:00, 13:00, 16:00, 19:00, 22:00, 1:00 and 4:00 of one day circadian clock. The three same time points of 3 days were treated as 3 repeats to perform statistical analysis.