Table 3. Background variation during the experimental process as assessed by calculating the standard deviation of repetitions across RGs and developmental stages.

SD	5 DPA	10 DPA	15 DPA	20 DPA	25 DPA
plant material	2.606	1.967	1.363	1.349	1.243
parallel RNA extraction	0.337	0.448	0.383	0.206	0.313
qPCR	0.238	0.234	0.234	0.262	0.240
triplicate	0.127	0.113	0.077	0.078	0.104

SD: standard deviation, DPA: number of days after anthesis when the caryopsis was harvested.