Total RNA was extracted with TRIZOL (TAKARA, 9109, Japan) and reverse transcribed with the High Capacity cDNA Reverse Transcription kit (ABI, 4368814, USA). Real-time quantitative polymerase chain reaction was performed as reported in a previously published paper [22 (link)], using SYBR Premix (Vazyme, Q331-02, China) according to the manufacturer’s instructions in an ABI StepOnePlus instrument. The data were analyzed via the ΔΔCt method and normalized to 18S mRNA. All primer sequences were designed by Primer3Plus (http://www.primer3plus.com/) and are listed in the Supplementary information.