Fig. 2

Overall differentially expressed genes (DEGs) in response to drought stress in ears at the V9 stage and in the ear leaf and kernel at the 5DAP stage. a The number of DEGs in ears at the V9 stage and the ear leaf and kernels at 5DAP. b Venn diagram showing the overlap of DEGs in the ear at the V9 stage and the ear leaf and kernels at 5DAP. c Heat map of the DEGs in the ear at the V9 stage and in the ear leaf and kernels at 5DAP in response to drought stress. d GO analysis of the 292 DEGs in all three organs. e DEGs in the synthesis of sucrose, trehalose and raffinose. f Upstream sequence motifs analysis of the 292 DEGs in all three organs. The upstream regions of the genes for common sequence motifs using PromZea (http://128.196.172.219/index.html). All the plants were grown under natural conditions, normal nutrients, well-watered soil in the field until the designated stages. Two different drought stress treatments (5 days drought stress at the V9 stage and 5DAP stage) and a normal control were performed. The upper ear (at the V9 stage), the ear leaf and kernel on the upper ear (at the 5 DAP stage) from drought stress and control plants was collected for RNA sequencing. Two biological repeats were sampled for a treatment, and each repeat contained organs from 4 plants for one library. The absolute values of log2 (drought/control) ≥1 and FDR < 0.001 were used as the criteria for DEGs. The color of the box represents up (red) and down (green)-regulated genes (drought/normal), and the value in the box is the log2 (drought/control) of the genes in the corresponding organs