Transcriptome profiling of differentially expressed genes from floral buds and flowers of male sterile and fertile lines in watermelon

Male sterility is important mechanism in watermelon for production of hybrid seed. While some fruit development related studies were widely performed in watermelon, there are no reports of profiling gene expression in floral organs of watermelon. RNA-seq analysis was performed in order to identify male sterility related genes from two different groups of watermelon (genetic male-sterile (GMS) DAH3615-MS line and male-fertile DAH3615 line, respectively) to identify the differentially expressed genes (DEGs). Overall design: This study employed tophat and edgeR for transcriptome analysis of next-generation RNA-seq data, which included 2 tissues obtained from 2 different breeds of watermelon