The extracted mRNA was used to construct RNA-seq libraries using rRNA-depleted RNAs with the NEBNext® Ultra™ II RNA Library Prep Kit (New England Biolabs, Ipswich, MA, USA) following the manufacturer’s protocol. To ensure that the sample quality requirements were met before testing, library quantification was performed using a Qubit 2.0 instrument, and library insert size was evaluated using an Agilent 2100 Bioanalyzer (Agilent Technologies, Santa Clara, CA, USA). The libraries were then pooled and sequenced on the HiSeqTM 2500 system (Illumina, San Diego, CA, USA). Gene expression levels were estimated according to the expected number of fragments per kilobase of transcript per million mapped fragments by HTSeq v0.9.1 (Anders et al., 2015 (link)). Pairwise comparisons were performed, and clustering was implemented for all expressed genes using the Trinity v2.8.4 package (Grabherr et al., 2011 (link)).