Fig. 5: GS3.1 may participate in the flavonoid biosynthesis pathway leading to changes in lignin biosynthesis and the flavonoid-mediated auxin pathway.

Comparison of the relative content of p-coumaric acid (a), naringenin (b), caffeic acid (c), ferulic acid (d), coniferyl alcohol (e), and secoisolariciresinol 4-O-glucoside (f) between the GS3.1 knock-out line KO-GS3.1 panicles and wild-type control panicles (n = 3 biological replicates, 4 plants per biological replicate). Heat maps of the relative content of flavonoids (g) and lignans (h) in KO-GS3.1 panicles and wild-type control panicles determined using metabolomics. Standard-scores (Z-scores) were used as the numerical metrics to evaluate the standard deviations from the mean of the corresponding samples. i Comparison of lignin content between the leaves of GS3.1 overexpression lines OE-GS3.1 and wild-type controls (n = 9 leaves from 3 plants for wildtype, n = 7 leaves from 3 plants for OE-GS3.1). j The relative expression of flavonoid and lignin biosynthesis-related genes and auxin-related genes in GS3.1 knock-out line KO-GS3.1 panicles and wild-type control panicles determined by qRT-PCR (n = 3 biological replicates). The values in a–f, i and j represent the mean ± s.d. *P < 0.05 and **P < 0.01 indicate significant differences compared to the wild-type control in two-tailed Student’s t-tests. The source data underlying Fig. 5a–j are provided as Source data file.