Fig. 3

qRT-PCR validation of transcriptome DE analysis. a Shows the relative expression fold change for the four contigs that were significantly differentially expressed (adjusted P value <0.05) between Stages 0 and 1 in the RNA-seq data, next to their relative expression fold change for the qRT-PCR data (normalized against RPL27 housekeeping gene). b Shows fold change of gene expression for five contigs that were significantly differentially expressed between Stages 1 and 2 in the RNA-seq data, next to the qRT-PCR gene expression. c Shows fold change of gene expression for four contigs that were significantly differentially expressed between Stages 3 and 5 in the RNA-seq next to the qRT-PCR gene expression. The contigs relative expression fold changes are given as the ratio of the first group compared to the second, (for example Stage 1 against Stage 0). The qRT-PCR expression data was analysed using a Mann–Whitney, non-parametric unpaired, two-tailed t-test, to determine if they were significantly differentially expressed, before converting them to fold change ratios