Recently, the research entitled “The genetic basis of leaf hair development in upland cotton (  Gossypium hirsutum  )” has been published by The Plant Journal (IF = 7.1). In this paper, Recently, the researcher of the Cotton Research Institute of the Chinese Academy of Agricultural Sciences identified three major loci controlling leaf hair development in upland cotton, and systematically analyzed their genetic mechanisms regulating leaf hair development, providing new insights into cotton trichome and fiber development.

In this study, resercher using genome-wide association study (GWAS) across 1037 diverse accessions in upland cotton ( Gossypium hirsutum ) to identify three loci associated with leaf pubescence (hair) amount, located on chromosome A06 ( LPA1 ), A08 ( LPA2 ) and A11 ( LPA3 ), respectively.  GhHD1 , a previously characterized candidate gene, was identified on  LPA1  and encodes an HD-Zip transcription factor. For  LPA2  and  LPA3 , they identified two candidate genes,  GhGIR1  and  GhGIR2 , both encoding proteins with WD40 and RING domains that act as inhibitors of leaf hair formation. Expression analysis revealed that  GhHD1  was predominantly expressed in hairy accessions, whereas  GhGIR1  and  GhGIR2  were expressed in hairless accessions. Silencing  GhHD1  or overexpressing  GhGIR1  in hairy accessions induced in a hairless phenotype, whereas silencing  GhGIR2  in hairless accessions resulted in a hairy phenotype. They also demonstrated that GhHD1 interact with both GhGIR1 and GhGIR2, and GhGIR1 can interact with GhGIR2. Further investigation indicated that  GhHD1  functions as a transcriptional activator, binding to the promoters of the  GhGIR1  and  GhGIR2  to active their expression, whereas GhGIR1 and GhGIR2 can suppress the transcriptional activation of  GhHD1 . Our findings shed light on the intricate regulatory network involving  GhHD1 ,  GhGIR1  and  GhGIR2  in the initiation and development of plant epidermal hairs in cotton.

This research was funded by Sponsored by Natural Science Foundation of Henan (242300420459), the National Key Research and Development Program of China (2022YFD1200300) and Anyang Institute of Technology Doctoral Research Start-up Fund Project (2022015).

http://doi.org/10.1111/tpj.17017