Fig. 6

Quantitative real-time PCR (qPCR) validation of the expression of DEGs inferred from the transcriptome data. The left Y-axis and solid bars show mRNA levels by qPCR, and the right Y-axis and empty bars show TPM values inferred from the transcriptome data. The solid bar represents mean ± SEM (n = 3). Different letters above the bars indicate significant differences (p < 0.05). One-way analysis of variance, followed by Duncan multiple comparison test, was used to estimate significant differences in gene expression across stages except apoeb and amh, for which Dunnett T3 was used for the multiple comparison test due to the heterogeneity of data. F, female; EI, early intersex; MI, mid-intersex; LI, late intersex