Transcriptome analysis of differentially expressed genes (DEGs) induced by Sporisorium reilianum between the two lines of ZmWRKY-KO and B73

The 7d-mesocotyls of wild type B73 and its ZmWRKY53-KO counterparts were treated with or without S. reilianum for RNA sequencing.The differentially expressed genes (DEGs) were identified based on the criteria of fold-change > 2 and P < 0.05. Under normal conditions, we found 1,025 downregulated and 599 upregulated differentially expressed genes (DEGs) in the ZmWRKY53-KO plant compared to its wild-type B73 counterpart. Under S. reilianum-infected conditions, 1,041 downregulated and 1,268 upregulated DEGs were identified in the ZmWRKY53-KO plant. Overall design: To invesigate the ZmWRKY53 mediated resistance to maize head smut disease, we performed RNA-Seq between ZmWRKY-KO and B73.