Hen Egg White Lysozyme (HEWL) Confers Resistance to Verticillium Wilt in Cotton by Inhibiting the Spread of Fungus and Generating ROS Burst.

Verticillium wilt is a soil-borne vascular disease caused by the fungal pathogen . It causes great harm to upland cotton () yield and quality. A previous study has shown that Hen egg white lysozyme (HEWL) exerts strong inhibitory activity against in vitro. In the current study, we introduced the gene into cotton through the -mediated transformation, and the exogenous HEWL protein was successfully expressed in cotton. Our study revealed that HEWL was able to significantly inhibit the proliferation of in cotton. Consequently, the overexpression of HEWL effectively improved the resistance to Verticillium wilt in transgenic cotton. In addition, ROS accumulation and NO content increased rapidly after the inoculation of plant leaves overexpressing HEWL. In addition, the expression of the PR genes was significantly up-regulated. Taken together, our results suggest that HEWL significantly improves resistance to Verticillium wilt by inhibiting the growth of pathogenic fungus, triggering ROS burst, and activating PR genes expression in cotton.