AUTHOR=Cui Yanli , Ge Qun , Zhao Pei , Chen Wei , Sang Xiaohui , Zhao Yunlei , Chen Quanjia , Wang Hongmei 

TITLE=Rapid Mining of Candidate Genes for Verticillium Wilt Resistance in Cotton Based on BSA-Seq Analysis

JOURNAL=Frontiers in Plant Science

VOLUME=12

YEAR=2021

URL=https://www.frontiersin.org/journals/plant-science/articles/10.3389/fpls.2021.703011

DOI=10.3389/fpls.2021.703011

ISSN=1664-462X

ABSTRACT=<p>Cotton is a globally important cash crop. Verticillium wilt (VW) is commonly known as “cancer” of cotton and causes serious loss of yield and fiber quality in cotton production around the world. Here, we performed a BSA-seq analysis using an F<sub>2:3</sub> segregation population to identify the candidate loci involved in VW resistance. Two QTLs (qvw-D05-1 and qvw-D05-2) related to VW resistance in cotton were identified using two resistant/susceptible bulks from the F<sub>2</sub> segregation population constructed by crossing the resistant cultivar ZZM2 with the susceptible cultivar J11. A total of 30stop-lost SNPs and 42 stop-gained SNPs, which included 17 genes, were screened in the qvw-D05-2 region by SnpEff analysis. Further analysis of the transcriptome data and qRT-PCR revealed that the expression level of <italic>Ghir_D05G037630</italic> (designated as <italic>GhDRP</italic>) varied significantly at certain time points after infection with <italic>V. dahliae</italic>. The virus-induced gene silencing of <italic>GhDRP</italic> resulted in higher susceptibility of the plants to <italic>V. dahliae</italic> than the control, suggesting that <italic>GhDRP</italic> is involved in the resistance to <italic>V. dahlia</italic> infection. This study provides a method for rapid mining of quantitative trait loci and screening of candidate genes, as well as enriches the genomic information and gene resources for the molecular breeding of disease resistance in cotton.</p>