Whole transcriptome sequencing reveals drought resistance-related genes in upland cotton

China, especially the Xinjiang cotton area, is facing severe agricultural water shortages, which seriously restrain the development of the cotton industry. Discovering cotton drought resistance genes and cultivating high-quality and drought-resistant cotton materials through molecular breeding methods are of great significance to the development of the cotton industry. In this study, the drought-resistant cotton material Xinluzhong NO.82 and the drought-sensitive cotton material Kexin NO.1 were used to identify a batch of drought-resistant candidate genes through whole transcriptome sequencing. The main research results obtained were as follows: the ceRNA (competing endogenous RNAs) network was constructed using full transcriptional sequencing to screen the core genes in the core pathway; two drought-related candidate genes were obtained. Gohir.A11G156000 was upregulated at 0 h vs 12 h and downregulated at 12 h vs 24 h. Gohir.A07G220600 was downregulated at 0 h vs 12 h and upregulated at 12 h vs 24 h. The results for drought-resistant materials and drought-sensitive materials were similar. Gohir.A11G156000, encoding GABA-T, which is homologous to POP2 in Arabidopsis thaliana, affects the drought resistance of plants by regulating the GABA content. Gohir.A07G220600 encodes L-aspartate oxidase, which is homologous to AO in Arabidopsis thaliana, and is involved in the early steps of NAD biosynthesis and in plant antioxidant reactions. This study confirmed that the use of gene expression regulatory networks can quickly screen reliable drought-resistance genes and can be used for subsequent gene function verification.