Transcriptome analysis of the seed weight plasticity in Brassica napus

A critical barrier for improving crops yield is the compensatory effect between seed weight (SW) and seed number (SN), which has been widely reported in several crops including Brassica napus. Despite the agronomic relevance of this issue, the molecular factors involved in the interaction between SW and SN are largely unknown in crops. In this work, we performed a detailed transcriptomic analysis of 48 seed samples obtained from two rapeseed spring genotypes subjected to different source-sink (S-S) ratios in order to modify the relationship between SW and SN under field conditions. Seed samples were collected from 5 plants per plot (25 siliques per plant from the bottom of the main raceme) in two development stages: 7 and 14 after the beginning of the shading treatment in three replicates across the different factors analyzed (genotypes, S-S ratio and sowing dates)