The immature embryos of maize are able to form embryogenic calli through tissue culture， and are usually used as explants in genetic transformation. The molecular mechanism in the process of maize embryonic callus formation remains fully illustrated. To reveal the candidate genes that are involved in the callus formation of maize， two types of calli （type I， well growth； type II， poor growth） from F₃ embryos of maize inbred line CAL28 × Zheng58 were harvested for the RNA-seq analysis. 4419 differentially expressed genes （DEGs） were revealed between two types， including 1571 up regulated genes and 2848 down regulated genes. GO enrichment analysis showed that DEGs were mainly enriched in the pathways such as cellular process， catalytic activity， and cell component. KEGG enrichment analysis showed that the enrichment of DEGs were mainly involved in phenylpropanoid biosynthesis and the plant hormone signal transduction pathway. Among the early auxin responses genes， eight AUX/IAA genes including IAA23， IAA33， IAA41， and four GH3 genes were upregulated in type I callus. A total of 2968 transcription factors belonging to 56 transcription factor families in DEGs were significantly enriched. The expression levels of ZmEREB53， ZmEREB206， ZmEREB184， ZmLBD10， ZmLBD24， ZmLBD31， ZmLBD32， ZmWOX5b and ZmWOX9b， which are from AP2， WOX and LBD transcription factor families， were significantly up-regulated in type I callus. Genetic manipulation of these target genes may possibly promote the formation of maize callus. Collectively， this study identified candidate DEGs with great application potential， which provide theoretical reference for deciphering the molecular mechanism of maize callus formation.