*2.1. Maize Sample Preparation*

"Zhengdan 958" is widely planted in China due to its advantages of high and stable yield; hence, "Zhengdan 958" was selected as the experimental maize sample of this study. To reduce the influence of the bacteria carried by the maize itself, maize kernels with the same size and appearance were selected manually. All maize kernels were surface sterilized by soaking in 2% sodium hypochlorite solution for 5 min and then rinsed three times with distilled water. The conidia suspension of *Aspergillus flavus* (BNCC142801 purchased from BeNa Biotechnology Research Center, Xinyang, Henan province, China) was diluted to 10−<sup>3</sup> in sterile water and inoculated into maize kernels. Simulation of the maize mold process by inoculation with molds has been widely used in laboratory studies. Tao et al. [20] used two Aspergillus flavus, AF13 (aflatoxin-producing Aspergillus flavus) and AF36 (nonaflatoxin-producing Aspergillus flavus), for artificial laboratory inoculation to study the changes in maize. In this study, all inoculated maize kernels were divided into 240 groups and placed in petri dishes with the embryo side facing upward. Each group contained about 30 kernels, weighing 10 ± 0.5 g. All samples were cultured in a constant temperature and humidity incubator with a temperature of 30 ◦C and relative humidity of 80%.
