Zhen Li

Hainan Institute of Biotechnology, Haikou, 570206, Hainan, China
Author    Correspondence author
Cotton Genomics and Genetics, 2025, Vol. 16, No. 4   
Received: 12 May, 2025    Accepted: 23 Jun., 2025    Published: 15 Jul., 2025

This is an open access article published under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.

Cotton (Gossypium spp.), as an important economic crop in the world, is often affected by biotic stresses such as pathogenic fungi, bacteria and pests, resulting in reduced yield and quality. Exploring its natural immune response mechanism is of great significance for improving disease and insect resistance and ensuring agricultural production safety. Based on transcriptome data, this study systematically analyzed the changes in gene expression of cotton when it was subjected to biotic stress, screened out key genes and signaling pathways closely related to defense response, including pathogen-related proteins (PRs), defensins, hormone regulatory factors, etc., and deeply explored the transcriptional regulatory mechanisms of two types of immune responses, PTI (PAMP-triggered immunity) and ETI (effector-triggered immunity). The relevant immune regulatory network was further constructed, and several resistance candidate genes with application potential were screened. This study provides a molecular basis for a deeper understanding of the natural immune mechanism of cotton, and provides theoretical references and gene resources for the breeding of highly resistant cotton varieties, hoping to promote the development of green prevention and control of cotton pests and diseases and molecular breeding.

Cotton; Biotic stress; Natural immunity; Transcriptome analysis; Resistance gene