Table 2.

Correlation of mRNA levels with carotenoid content in maize grains. Pearson correlation for the comparison of transcript levels in grains at 22 days after pollination (DAP) and kernel carotenoid content in mature grains (48 DAP) from the maize varieties was performed using GraphPad Prism 4 (GraphPad Software Inc., San Diego, CA, USA) to test the statistical significance of the relationship. * indicates p < 0.1; ** indicates p < 0.05; and *** indicates p < 0.01. Inbred lines are as shown in Figure 3.

Variables	PSY1	CYP97C	HYD3	CCD1	Total Carotenoids	α-Carotene	β-Carotene	α-Cryptoxanthin	β-Cryptoxanthin	Lutein	Zeaxanthin
PSY1	-	0.49 **	0.70 ***	−0.29	0.46 **	0.13	0.12	0.07	0.41 **	0.23	0.52 ***
CYP97C	0.49 **	-	0.34 *	0.09	0.25	0.30	0.24	0.14	−0.06	0.26	0.03
HYD3	0.70 ***	0.34 *	-	0.10	0.25	−0.16	−0.05	−0.25	0.72 ***	−0.22	0.57 ***
CCD1	−0.29	0.09	0.10	-	−0.50 **	−0.37 *	−0.42 **	−0.52 ***	0.00	−0.42 **	−0.36 *
Total Carotenoids	0.46 **	0.25	0.25	−0.50 **	-	0.67 ***	0.79 ***	0.79 ***	0.45 **	0.76 ***	0.63 ***
α-Carotene	0.13	0.30	−0.16	−0.37 *	0.67 ***	-	0.90 ***	0.81 ***	0.05	0.66 ***	0.07
β-Carotene	0.12	0.24	−0.05	−0.42 **	0.79 ***	0.90 ***	-	0.85 ***	0.23	0.63 ***	0.26
α-Cryptoxanthin	0.07	0.14	−0.25	−0.52 ***	0.79 ***	0.81 ***	0.85 ***	-	0.11	0.77 ***	0.23
β-Cryptoxanthin	0.41 **	−0.06	0.72 ***	0.00	0.45 **	0.05	0.23	0.11	-	−0.08	0.61 ***
Lutein	0.23	0.26	−0.22	−0.42 **	0.76 ***	0.66 ***	0.63 ***	0.77 ***	−0.08	-	0.07
Zeaxanthin	0.52 ***	0.03	0.57 ***	−0.36 *	0.63 ***	0.07	0.26	0.23	0.61 ***	0.07	-