Supplementary dataset about "High temperature disrupts maize silk function through metabolic and oxidative dysregulation"

This dataset provides comprehensive supplemental data supporting the research on heat stress impacts on maize silk growth and viability, entitled "Bridge in pollination: heat-induced hidden grain loss traced to silks in maize". It includes five Excel files detailing gene expression, metabolite pathways, and gene co-expression network analyses under high temperature conditions.The files include:<b>Supplemental Data Set 1:</b> Expression levels of all genes across different maize silk samples, including union sets of differentially expressed genes (DEGs) from two distinct classes (Class I and II). It also contains enriched Kyoto Encyclopedia of Genes and Genomes (KEGG) pathway annotations for DEGs across four comparison groups.<b>Supplemental Data Set 2:</b> Lists of up- and down-regulated DEGs specifically related to flavonoid and lignin metabolism, sugar metabolism and transport, and plant hormone signaling pathways (including auxin (IAA), zeatin riboside (ZR), abscisic acid (ABA), brassinolide (BR), and jasmonic acid (JA)) across the different classes.<b>Supplemental Data Set 3:</b> Expression data of all genes and corresponding Z-score transformed trait values used for Weighted Gene Co-expression Network Analysis (WGCNA), facilitating identification of gene modules linked to heat stress response.<b>Supplemental Data Set 4:</b> Gene lists in the blue WGCNA module, including Gene Ontology (GO) enrichment results. The file also highlights 20 hub genes with high connectivity within this module, along with functional annotations (Pfam, Swiss-Prot, NR databases). Key heat shock proteins (HSPs) and transcription factors (TFs) with differential expression patterns are identified here.<b>Supplemental Data Set 5:</b> Network edge data for genes within the blue WGCNA module, filtered by weight threshold. This file identifies top-ranking TFs with significant intramodular connectivity, essential for understanding regulatory mechanisms under heat stress.These datasets collectively reveal molecular and physiological alterations in maize silks exposed to heat stress, emphasizing the roles of sugar metabolism, hormone signaling, phenylpropanoid and flavonoid biosynthesis, and transcriptional regulatory networks in silk growth inhibition and pollination dysfunction. This resource is invaluable for researchers studying plant reproductive stress biology and for breeding maize varieties with improved heat tolerance.