SLC39A8 and infection: Among all the DEGs, 15 Zn nutritional immunity related genes were identified in E. coioides, including IL6, JAK, MT5, S100-A1, STAT3, STAT5, ZIP1, ZIP4, ZIP6, ZIP7, ZIP8, ZIP11, ZIP13, ZIP14, and ZNT2. Compared with healthy E. coioides, these genes were significantly upregulated in wild-type and znuC-95%RNAi strain infected E. coioides, except for S100-A1 that was downregulated in E. coioides upon infection with the znuC-95%RNAi strain (Figure 4C).