Fig. 3: Impact of hydropriming on the expression profiles of antioxidant and DNA repair genes in ‘67/3’ seeds.

a Results of qRT-PCR analyses performed on seeds collected during the HP72 treatment (at 24, 48, and 72 h) and compared to the DS are shown as expression changes of antioxidant and BER genes. Values represent fold changes of transcript levels where FC = primed seed (HP)/dry seed (DS) and FC(HP/DS) values <1 or >1 correspond to gene downregulation or upregulation, respectively (dashed line). Relative gene expression values are shown in Supplementary Table S5. b Results of qRT-PCR analyses performed on HP and UP seeds collected during the germination test (0, 2, 4, 8, 16, 24, 48, and 72 h) and at the radicle protrusion stage (RD) are shown as expression changes of antioxidant and BER genes. Values represent fold changes of transcript levels where FC = primed seed (HP)/unprimed seeds (UP) and FC(HP/UP) values <1 or >1 correspond to gene downregulation or upregulation, respectively (dashed line). Relative gene expression values are shown in Supplementary Table S6. Values are expressed as mean ± SD of three independent replications with 20 seeds for each replication. Results of the Student’s t-test highlighting statistically significant differences are shown in Supplementary Table S4. Sm Solanum melongena, SOD superoxide dismutase, APX ascorbate peroxidase, OGG1 8-oxoguanine glycosylase/lyase, FPG formamidopyrimidine-DNA glycosylase, TDP1α tyrosyl-DNA phosphodiesterase 1α