Genetic variation in arsenic content of maize kernel is controlled by the ZmAAA1 gene encoding Flavin adenine dinucleotide synthetase

We have cloned the maize ZmFADS1, also named ZmAAA1. ZmFADS1 was over-expressed under rbcS1 promoter, and the heterozygous mutant also created by CRISPR/Cas 9 method. To explore the genes that has been differentially expressed, we collected the ear leaves of V13 stage maize. Total RNA were isolated. RNA-Seq experiments were conducted with RNA isolated from three biological replicates. Three plants from each genotype were mixed to comprise one biological replicate. RNA libraries were constructed according to the TruSeq1 Stranded mRNA Sample Preparation Guide (TruSeq1 Stranded mRNA LTSetA). All libraries were PE150 sequenced using an Illumina HiSeq3000 system. Low quality reads were filtered out with Trimmomatic (v0.36) 63. RSEM-1.3.064 was used to align RNA-seq reads to the B73 v5 reference genome respectively, and gene expression levels were estimated using default parameters.