Skip to main content
ARS Home » Plains Area » Las Cruces, New Mexico » Cotton Ginning Research » Research » Publications at this Location » Publication #309361
Title: Identification of drought-responsive genes in a drought-tolerant cotton (Gossypium hirsutum L.) cultivar under reduced irrigation field conditions and development of candidate gene markers for drought tolerance

Author
item RODRIGUEZ-URIBE, LAURA - New Mexico State University
item ABDELRAHEEM, ABDELRAHEEM - New Mexico State University
item TIWARI, RASHMI - New Mexico State University
item SENGUPTA-GOPALAN, CHAMPA - New Mexico State University
item Hughs, Sidney
item ZHANG, JINFA - New Mexico State University

Submitted to: Molecular Breeding
Publication Type: Peer Reviewed Journal
Publication Acceptance Date: 6/19/2014
Publication Date: 12/31/2014
Publication URL: http://handle.nal.usda.gov/10113/60744
Citation: Rodriguez-Uribe, L., Abdelraheem, A., Tiwari, R., Sengupta-Gopalan, C., Hughs, S.E., Zhang, J. 2014. Identification of drought-responsive genes in a drought-tolerant cotton (Gossypium hirsutum L.) cultivar under reduced irrigation field conditions and development of candidate gene markers for drought tolerance. Molecular Breeding. 34(4):1777-1796.

Interpretive Summary: Cotton production is affected by water shortage and more knowledge is needed at the molecular level on how cotton responds to drought. Cotton in general is not particularly known as a drought tolerant crop but it is known that some cultivars are more drought tolerant than others. Acala 1517-99 has been identified as being drought tolerant to some degree. This is a report on a field study to identify particular genes that are either activated or repressed in Acala 1517-99 due to drought conditions. Identification of these genes may then allow them to be used as markers for future work in developing more drought tolerant cotton varieties. This study identified 110 genes that responded to drought conditions. Of these, 88 genes were repressed and 22 were activated by water shortage to the plant as identified by transcriptome analysis. Many of these genes had been reported by earlier studies and being responsive to drought conditions and can possibly be used to develop molecular markers. This is the first study to report the use of transcriptome analysis to develop molecular markers that are associated with drought tolerance in cotton.

Technical Abstract: Cotton productivity is affected by water deficit, and little is known about the molecular basis of drought tolerance in cotton. In this study, microarray analysis was conducted to identify drought-responsive genes in the third topmost leaves of the field-grown drought-tolerant cotton (Gossypium hirsutum L.) cultivar Acala 1517-99 under drought stress conditions. Water stress was imposed by withholding irrigation for 9 days in the early squaring stage, which resulted in 10–15 % reduction in plant growth compared to the well-watered plants. A total of 110 drought-responsive genes (0.5 % of the total genes) were identified, 79 % (88 genes) of which were drought-repressed and 21 % (22 genes) were drought-induced. The drought- induced genes were grouped into six functional categories including stress-related (ten genes, nine of which encode heat shock proteins), metabolism (three genes) and one gene each for transcription factor, proline biosynthesis and cellular transport. The drought-repressed genes were classified into 14 functional categories, comprising metabolism (20 genes), cellular transport (12 genes), stress-related (12 genes), regulation of gene expression (nine genes), transcription factor (four genes), signal transduction (seven genes) and two genes each for biosynthesis of secondary compounds, cell wall, fatty acids/lipids and chlorophyll, and protein degradation. Most of the genes have been reported in other plants as drought- tolerant/responsive. The responsiveness of 19 selected drought-responsive genes was validated by quantitative RT-PCR. Furthermore, primers were developed and assayed for all the drought-responsive genes to develop single-strand conformation polymorphic markers, many of which were found to be correlated with drought tolerance. This report represents the first study on integration of a transcriptome analysis to develop molecular markers that are associated with drought tolerance in cotton.