TF genes belonging to the same family displayed similar expression patterns: the B3, B3-ARF, C2C2-CO-like, C2C2-YABBY, MADS_MIKC, mTERF, and Whirly families were mostly downregulated in response to FHB, while AP2/ERF-ERF, AP2/ERF-RAV, CAMTA, LOB, MYB, NAC, PLATZ, Tify, and WRKY families were mostly upregulated along with the infection progress (Fig. 4 and Additional file 1: Table S2). This evidence concerns the gene MTERF1 and infection.