Jinhua  Cheng , Shanjun  Zhu , Mengting  Luo

Institute of Life Science, Jiyang College of Zhejiang A&F University, Zhuji, 311800, China
Author    Correspondence author
Cotton Genomics and Genetics, 2025, Vol. 16, No. 4   
Received: 03 Jun., 2025    Accepted: 14 Jul., 2025    Published: 02 Aug., 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.) fiber is an important natural textile raw material. Its development process mainly includes four stages: initiation, elongation, secondary wall thickening and maturity, which are finely regulated by complex molecular networks. In recent years, protein post-translational modifications (PTMs), as an important mechanism for regulating plant cell activities, play a key role in the development of cotton fibers. This study systematically sorted out the regulatory functions of currently known PTMs types (such as phosphorylation, ubiquitination, acetylation, methylation, etc.) in the process of fiber elongation and maturation, revealed its molecular mechanisms in signal transduction, cytoskeleton remodeling, cell wall synthesis, etc., summarized the key functional proteins closely related to PTMs and their regulatory pathways, and explored its application prospects in molecular breeding of high-quality cotton. This study provides new theoretical support and direction for improving fiber traits, and is expected to further promote the advancement of cotton molecular breeding technology and the upgrading of the cotton fiber industry.

Cotton; Fiber development; Protein post-translational modification; Phosphorylation; Molecular regulatory mechanism