Figure 4. Transgene mRNA expression levels in leaves of GM rice plants in which the reporter dsred-tag54 was regulated by three different promoters, pHsp82, pHsp18 and pUbi.

Three independent events were analyzed carrying every construct. For each event, T₁ seeds were germinated under control conditions and sets of eight plants at the V2 stage were either subjected to 42°C for 2 h, or not, and their leaves were individually sampled. Sets of five plants harboring the transgene (i.e. giving positive transgene signal using the Phire Plant kit) were collectively analyzed by RT-qPCR targeting the sequence encoding DsRed-tag54, and normalized against ef1α. Mean and SD values corresponding to each promoter are shown. Letters indicate statistically different transgene mRNA values (One-way ANOVA, Tukey's b posttest α<0.05).