Comparative Transcriptomic Analysis of Biological Process and Key Pathway in Three Cotton (Gossypium spp.) Species Under Drought Stress

Abstract

Drought is one of the most important abiotic stresses that seriously affects cotton growth, development, and production worldwide. However, the molecular mechanism, key pathway, and responsible genes for drought tolerance incotton have not been stated clearly. In this research, high-throughput next generation sequencing technique was utilized to investigate gene expression profiles of three cotton species (Gossypium hirsutum, Gossypium arboreum, and Gossypium barbadense L.) under drought stress. A total of 6968 differentially expressed genes (DEGs) were identified, where 2053, 742, and 4173 genes were tested as statistically significant; 648, 320, and 1998 genes were up-regulated, and 1405, 422, and 2175 were down-regulated in TM-1, Zhongmian-16, and Pima4-S, respectively. Total DEGs were annotated and classified into functional groups under gene ontology analysis. The biological process was present only in tolerant species(TM-1), indicating drought tolerance condition. The Kyoto encyclopedia of genes and genomes showed the involvement of plant hormone signal transduction and metabolic pathways enrichment under drought stress. Several transcription factors associated with ethylene-responsive genes (ICE1, MYB44, FAMA, etc.) were identified as playing key roles in acclimatizing to drought stress. Drought also caused significant changes in the expression of certain functional genes linked to abscisic acid (ABA) responses (NCED, PYL, PP2C, and SRK2E), reactive oxygen species (ROS) related in small heat shock protein and 18.1 kDa I heat shock protein, YLS3, and ODORANT1 genes. These results will provide deeper insights into the molecular mechanisms of drought stress adaptation in cotton.

Genome-wide analysis of PYL-PP2C-SnRK2s family in Camellia sinensis

“…The overexpression of OsPYL3 and OsPYL9 genes can increase rice tolerance to drought [51], and NtPYLs have been shown to have important functions in the drought tolerance of Nicotiana tabacum [52]. Highthroughput next generation sequencing showed that PYL, PP2C, and SRK2E respond to drought stress in Gossypium spp [53]. In banana, the PYL-PP2C-SnRK2 gene family regulated its tolerance to abiotic stress, such as salt and drought stress conditions [54].…”

Transcriptome Profiling, Biochemical and Physiological Analyses Provide New Insights towards Drought Tolerance in Nicotiana tabacum L.

“…Similarly, other studies also put light on the role of various pathways such as plant hormones signal transduction pathway, proline metabolism pathway, starch and sucrose metabolism pathway etc. in response to drought stress [25][26][27][28]. The complete and comprehensive physiological, anatomical, biochemical and transcriptomic analyses are rare under drought stress in flue-cured tobacco cultivars.…”

Brief Bioinformatics characterization of Cotton bZIP transcription factors family from Gossypium hirsutum, Gossypium arboreum and Gossypium raimondii

“…bZIP11, bZIP17, bZIP37, bZIP47, bZIP53, bZIP55 and bZIP60 etc. (Yao et al 2011;Ranjan et al 2012;Zhang et al 2013;Peng et al 2014;Zhang et al 2018;Hasan et al 2019;Wang et al 2020).…”