Cotton is an important commercial crop,and its yield and quality are severely affected by Verticillium dahliae.Identi-fying cotton resistance genes to Verticillium dahliae and exploring the underlying molecular mechanisms is of great significance for accelerating the breeding process of cotton resistant to Verticillium wilt.In a previous study,the WRKY gene GhWRKY41 was identified as being induced by Verticillium dahliae in multiple resistant cotton varieties,enhancing cotton resistance through the activation of phenylpropanoid metabolism.This study further analyzed the expression patterns of GhWRKY41 under different hormone treatments,validated its disease resistance function in the upland cotton variety'Jin668'using a virus-induced gene si-lencing(VIGS)assay,and measured endogenous hormone content.The results demonstrated that GhWRKY41 was significantly up-regulated by SA,Me-JA,and H2O2.Silencing GhWRKY41 weakened cotton resistance to Verticillium dahliae,while overex-pression of GhWRKY41 led to a marked increase in SA content,and its RNAi lines showed a decrease in SA content.RT-qPCR results revealed that the expression levels of the SA biosynthesis gene GhSID2 and the SA signal transduction genes GhNPR1,GhPR1,and GhPR5 were significantly up-regulated in GhWRKY41-overexpression plants but decreased in GhWRKY41-RNAi plants.ChIP-qPCR and luciferase reporter gene assays showed that GhWRKY41 binds to and activates the expression of GhSID2,GhPR1,and GhPR5.Additionally,external spraying of SA significantly enhanced cotton resistance to Verticillium dahliae.In summary,GhWRKY41 enhances cotton resistance to Verticillium dahliae by promoting SA synthesis.This study elucidates the biological function of GhWRKY41 in cotton resistance to Verticillium dahliae and provides a theoretical basis for developing cot-ton varieties with improved resistance.
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