Guiry et al. BMC Genomics 2010, 11:211 http://www.biomedcentral.com/1471-2164/11/211 Page 7 of 18 Figure 3 Microarray and qRT-PCR data for select genes in testes samples. (a) A comparison of microarray and qRT-PCR data in pooled samples. Microarray data (blue bars) for the LIMMA comparison of precocious and non-precocious testes were compared to qPCR data (red bars) for the same RNA pools that were used in the microarray analysis, i.e. pooled precocious (n = 12) and non-precocious (n = 30). Positive values are up-regulated in precocity and log2 values are plotted on a linear scale for clarity. All qPCR data was normalised using succinate dehydrogenase (SD) as reference gene. qPCR values are Means ± SEM of triplicate measurements. Error bars are only shown on the microarray data where the gene is represented more than once in the list of significant genes. (b) qPCR of individual testes samples relating to precocity and adult maturation. Samples of precocious testes (blue bars; n = 8-9), and July (turquoise bars) and November (yellow bars) maturing adults (n = 3) were of individuals whereas those of non-precocious males (red bars) were 4 pools each of 10 testes. Relative expression levels are plotted as log2 values on a linear scale. Succinate dehydrogenase (SD) was the reference gene in all cases. All primers were designed to the database sequence of the identified gene (see Table 4). Values are Means ± SEM of triplicate measurements. See Additional file 2 for some further details. AMH: Anti-Mullerian Hormone, APOE: Apolipoprotein E, EF1: Elongation Factor 1, B-GLOB: beta-globin, CATB: cathepsin B, B2M: Beta-2 microglobulin, LPL: Lipoprotein lipase, GNB2L1: Guanine nucleotide binding protein (G protein) beta polypeptide 2-like 1, COL1A: Type 1A collagen.