transcriptional dynamics during pollen development

To explore the transcriptomic dynamics of microspore cells developing into mature pollen grains, we collected anthers from stages S8 to S11 for transcriptome sequencing. Compared with stage S8, stage S9 significantly upregulated 290 differentially expressed genes (DEGs) and downregulated 307 DEGs, stage S10 significantly upregulated 1641 DEGs and downregulated 1326 DEGs, and stage S11 significantly upregulated 3136 DEGs and downregulated 2145 DEGs. The Venn diagram showed that there were 193 DEGs commonly upregulated and 135 DEGs commonly downregulated at stages S9, S10, and S11 (Fig. 6A). Heatmaps and Principal Component Analysis (PCA) revealed that the transcriptomic characteristics of S8-S10 were relatively similar, but there were significant differences compared to the transcriptome at stage S11. Based on the state of pollen development, we speculate that the complete development of microspore cells into mature pollen grains is the turning point for changes in anther transcriptome dynamics.