Integrated Insights into Drought Tolerance Mechanism of the Autotetraploid from Gossypium herbaceum by Transcriptome and Physiological Analyses

BACKGROUND: was successfully generated via colchicine-induced chromosome doubling from the diploid cultivar 'Hongxing' in our lab. METHODS: To investigate the drought stress response mechanism of this tetraploid, the autotetraploid S4 was used as the experimental material. The plants were subjected to drought stress during the flowering stage, followed by measurements of physiological and biochemical indicators and transcriptomic sequencing analysis. RESULTS: , were selected and analyzed using real-time quantitative PCR; the results were generally consistent with the transcriptomic data. CONCLUSIONS: These findings substantially enhance our understanding of the molecular mechanisms underlying drought responses in autotetraploids. This novel autotetraploid genotype expands the available cotton germplasm resources and is expected to hold significant value for research on polyploidy evolution.