The expression levels of the ZmWRKY53 gene in B73 (Fig. 1E) were significantly induced by inoculation at 4 DAI and in
conjunction with wounding at 10 DAI in comparison to the non-treated control. Expression levels were not significantly different in the inoculated treatment compared to the non-treated control at 18 DAI. InTZAR101 (Fig.1F), there was an induction in expression at 2, 4, and 10 DAI in response to inoculation, beginning earlier than that in B73. No significant difference in expression levels between the treatments at the other time points was detected. Overall, the expression levels for all treatments in B73 and TZAR101 were similar, resulting in only a marginally significant difference between the lines in the statistical analysis (p ¼ 0.0648; Table S4).