Table 4.

Correlation analysis of gene expression, incidence, disease index and lignin content.

	Incidence	Disease Index	Lignin Content	Flavonoids Content
CCoAOMT2 relative expression	−0.9865 **	−0.9840 **	0.8849 *	0.9992 **
CAD5 relative expression	−0.9810 **	−0.9877 **	0.8270 *	0.9991 **
lignin content	−0.7917 *	−0.7173 *	/	0.6515
flavonoids content	−0.9365 *	−0.9994 *	0.6515	/

*, indicating that the gene relative expression and lignin content of each target were significantly correlated with incidence, disease index and lignin content (p < 0.05, LSD test); **, indicating a very significant correlation (p < 0.01, LSD test).