Jinhua Cheng , 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. 6   doi: 10.5376/cgg.2025.16.0027
Received: 07 Sep., 2025    Accepted: 20 Oct., 2025    Published: 10 Nov., 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.

Cheng J.H., and Lou M.T., 2025, Regulatory role of promoter variants in cotton stress-responsive genes, Cotton Genomics and Genetics, 16(6): 269-277 (doi: 10.5376/cgg.2025.16.0027)

Cotton, as one of the world's important economic crops, often faces abiotic stresses such as drought, saline-alkali conditions and extreme temperatures. These environmental pressures severely restrict its growth and development as well as the stability of its yield. In recent years, molecular genetic studies have shown that promoter variations play a key role in regulating the expression of stress response genes in cotton. This study systematically reviewed the structure and function of promoters, the classification and characteristics of cotton stress-response genes, as well as the types of promoter variations involved in regulation. It focused on analyzing how promoter polymorphisms lead to transcriptional regulatory differences under stress conditions and affect cotton's adaptability to environmental stress. The molecular mechanisms such as sequence variations in the promoter region, DNA methylation, histone modification, and transcription factor interactions were also deeply explored. Key stress response genes such as AtDREB1A, GhHSP70, and GhERF1 were selected, and the specific functional manifestations of their promoter variations in salt tolerance, heat resistance, and drought resistance traits were introduced. This research is expected to provide new ideas for a deeper understanding of the regulatory network of plant environmental adaptability and promote the functional exploration and stress resistance improvement of cotton germplasm resources.

Cotton (Gossypium spp.); Promoter mutation; Stress response gene; Gene expression regulation; Abiotic stress tolerance