Stomatal Development and Gene Expression in Rice Florets

Stomata play a fundamental role modulating the exchange of gases between plants and the atmosphere. These microscopic structures form in high numbers on the leaf epidermis and are also present on flowers. Although leaf stomata are well-studied, little attention has been paid to the development or function of floral stomata. To characterise gene expression during the stomatal development in IR64 florets, as well as to identify potential gene expression differences in florets of transgenic plants with a reduction in stomatal density, a RNA-sequencing was carried out using floret samples from different developmental stages of IR64 (control) and transgenic plants overexpressing the gene OsEPF1. Differential expression analyses conducted on the RNA-seq dataset indicate that the cellular transitions during the development of floral stomata are regulated by the same genetic network used in rice leaves, and reveal alterations in global gene expression in florets of plants overexpressing OsEPF1. Overall design: This dataset includes samples of florets in the developing stages 1 to 5 and mature from IR64 (control) and OsEPF1-oe-S (transgenic) rice plants. Three biological replicates per sample type were sequenced.