Fig. 4: Synthesis of methylation and transcriptome-based results.

a The teM character mapped onto the differential expression analysis comparing WT and single mutant vs double mutant gene expression. Axes indicate the mean TPM values for each set of transcriptomes. MPGs have teM and at least tenfold higher expression in anther than in eight vegetative tissues in B73. Only core genes that are annotated in the W22 genome and in all 26 of the NAM founder genomes and which have sufficient coverage of EM-seq reads were included in this analysis. b mCG vs mCHG for the same sets of genes displayed in (a). Methylation values are measured in CDS only, as a proportion of methylated cytosines to total cytosines, and range from 0 to 1. c A model for DNA methylation in pollen gene regulation, requiring an initial licensing step by DNGs removing methylation (gray lollipops), before transcription at high levels via gene-specific activating factors (not shown) recruiting RNA polymerase II.