Transcriptome analysis of leaf tissue in contrasting lines of barley for biomass formation at the reproductive stage

Deciphering of network correlation operating in the plant biomass accumulation and yield production is a pre-requisite for understanding the relationships between omics data and growth rate in plants. To investigate the relationship among transcripts and their regulation for lignocellulose biomass formation at the generative stage of barley, transcript profiling was applied on three contrasting spring barley lines two weeks after flowering. A custom barley cDNA Microarray (Agilent Technologies, Germany) containing 56000 barley oligonucleotides was used for transcriptome analysis on flag leaves of spring barley. The network correlation of transcripts involved in secondary and RNA metabolism revealed a higher number of positive than negative correlations of which a signal molecule, ABH1-Cap binding protein showed the highest node degree centrality. Statistical test showed a strong positive interrelation between ABH1-Cap binding protein and a key gene of phenylpropanoid pathway, Cinnamoyl-CoA reductase. The integrated data suggested Cinnamoyl-CoA reductase (CCR) might be used as putative biomarker for engineering of lignocellulose biomass improvement at the generative stage in barley.