Dynamic characteristics and Functional Analysis Provide new insights into the role of GauERF105 in resistance against Verticillium wilt in Cotton

Verticillium wilt is the most devastating disease of cotton and it results in huge yield losses every year in the fields. The underlying mechanisms of VW in cotton are not well explored yet. In the current approach we used the transcriptome data from G. australe in response to Verticillium wilt attack to mine the ERF TFs and prove their potential role in resistance against VW attack in cotton. We identified 23 ERFs in total, and on the basis of expression at different time points i.e., 24h, 48h and 72h post inoculation and selected GauERF105 for further validation. We performed VIGS in cotton and over expression in Arabidopsis respectively. Moreover, DAB and trypan staining also suggests that the impact of disease was more in the wildtype as compared to transgene lines. On the basis of our results, we confirmed that GauERF105 is the key candidate and playing a key role for defending cotton against VW attack. Current finding might be helpful for generating resistance germplasm in cotton and it will be beneficial to recover the yield losses in field.