Response of different cotton genotypes to salt stress and re-watering

作者：Kang Zhao, Tao Yang, Bo Pang, Honggang Wang, Zhining Yang, Weiwei Liang, Cun Rui, Wengwei Gao · 发表于：BMC Plant Biology · 年份：2025 · DOI：10.1186/s12870-025-06534-6 · 被引用次数：9 · 研究领域：Plant Stress Responses and Tolerance、Plant responses to water stress、Silicon Effects in Agriculture

BACKGROUND: Cotton is a vital economic crop and reserve material and a pioneer crop planted on saline-alkaline soil. Improving the tolerance of cotton to saline alkaline environments is particularly important. RESULTS: Salt-tolerant and salt-sensitive cotton plants at the three-leaf stage were subjected to 200 mM NaCl stress treatment, thereafter, microstructural observations beside physiological and biochemical analyses were performed on cotton leaves at 0 h (CK), 48 h (NaCl) and re-watering (RW) for 48 h. Salt stress altered microstructural observations and physiological and biochemical in ST and SS (p < 0.05). After re-watering, ST recovered fully, while SS sustained permanent oxidative and structural damage, indicating distinct salt tolerance. Transcriptome analysis was performed on cotton leaves under salt stress and re-watering conditions. KEGG analysis revealed that the response of cotton to salt stress and its adaptation to re-watering may be related to major protein families such as photosynthesis (ko 00195), photosynthesis-antenna protein (ko 00196), plant hormone signal transduction (ko 04075), starch and sucrose metabolism (ko 00500), and porphyrin and chlorophyll metabolism (ko 00860). A gray coexpression module associated with cotton restoration under salt stress was enriched according to WGCNA. CONCLUSIONS: Salt stress did not only affect the physiological and biochemical levels of cotton but also induced structural changes in cells and tissues. Re-watering was...