title: RNA-Seq of  Zea mays field samples
design: Total RNA was treated with DNase I to remove genomic DNA contamination. The DNA-free total RNA was ribosome depleted (Ribo-Zero rRNA Removal Kit -Plant Leaf, Illumina, San Diego, CA, USA). Strand-specific cDNA libraries were prepared from ribosome-depleted RNA using the NEBNext Ultra II RNA library prep kit according to the manufacturers instructions. Paired-end short-read Illumina sequencing was performed on the dual-indexed cDNA libraries using HiSeq3000 (150bp from each end; 2 lanes per library).