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

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.…