About the Authors

Hongjun Liu

Contributed equally to this work with: Hongjun Liu, Huangkai Zhou, Yongsheng Wu

Affiliation Maize Research Institute of Sichuan Agricultural University, Chengdu, China

Huangkai Zhou

Contributed equally to this work with: Hongjun Liu, Huangkai Zhou, Yongsheng Wu

Affiliation Guangzhou Genedenovo Biotechnology Co., Ltd, Guangzhou, China

Yongsheng Wu

Contributed equally to this work with: Hongjun Liu, Huangkai Zhou, Yongsheng Wu

Affiliation Guangxi Maize Research Institute, Guangxi Academy of Agricultural Sciences, Nanning, China

Xiao Li

Affiliation Institute of Plant Protection, Sichuan Academy of Agricultural Sciences, Chengdu, China

Jing Zhao

Affiliation Department of Agronomy, Iowa State University, Ames, IA, United States of America

Tao Zuo

Affiliation Interdepartmental genetics program, Iowa State University, Ames, IA, United States of America

Xuan Zhang

Affiliation Guangzhou Genedenovo Biotechnology Co., Ltd, Guangzhou, China

Yongzhong Zhang

Affiliation Maize Research Institute of Sichuan Agricultural University, Chengdu, China

Sisi Liu

Affiliation Maize Research Institute of Sichuan Agricultural University, Chengdu, China

Yaou Shen

Affiliation Maize Research Institute of Sichuan Agricultural University, Chengdu, China

Haijian Lin

Affiliation Maize Research Institute of Sichuan Agricultural University, Chengdu, China

Zhiming Zhang

Affiliation Maize Research Institute of Sichuan Agricultural University, Chengdu, China

Kaijian Huang

Affiliation Guangxi Maize Research Institute, Guangxi Academy of Agricultural Sciences, Nanning, China

Thomas Lübberstedt

Affiliation Department of Agronomy, Iowa State University, Ames, IA, United States of America

Guangtang Pan

pangt@sicau.edu.cn

Affiliation Maize Research Institute of Sichuan Agricultural University, Chengdu, China

Competing Interests

HZ and XZ are employees of Guangzhou Genedenovo Biotechnology Co. There are no patents, products in development, or marketed products to declare. This does not alter the authors' adherence to all the PLOS ONE policies on sharing data and materials.

Author Contributions

Conceived and designed the experiments: H. Liu GP KH TL ZZ. Performed the experiments: H. Liu HZ YW JZ TZ XZ YS YZ SL. Analyzed the data: H. Liu HZ YW JZ TZ XZ YS YZ SL. Contributed reagents/materials/analysis tools: XL TL. Wrote the paper: H. Liu XL H. Lin TL GP.