Fig 5. Transcript profiling of sunflower genotypes varying in stress tolerance under individual and combined stresses.

Morden, KBSH42 and KBSH53 plants were subjected to individual stresses namely, methyl viologen-induced oxidative stress, cold, salt, drought and pathogen. Another batch of plants were subjected to two type of combined stresses, namely drought and pathogen and all stresses combined. The stress protocol is described in S5 Fig. From these stressed plants total RNA was isolated and cDNA was prepared and used for RT-qPCR. Three replicates were maintained. The expression was normalized to HaActin and fold change was calculated against the control samples. Two way ANOVA and Duncan’s multiple range test at P<0.05 was carried out using three biological replicates.