Genome-Wide Identification and Functional Characterization of Gene Family Reveal Its Involvement in Response to Stress in Cotton.

SKP1 constitutes the Skp1-Cullin-F-box ubiquitin E3 ligase (SCF), which plays a role in plant growth and development and biotic and abiotic stress in ubiquitination. However, the response of the gene family to abiotic and biotic stresses in cotton has not been well characterized. In this study, a total of 72 genes with the conserved domain of SKP1 were identified in four Gossypium species. Synteny and collinearity analyses revealed that segmental duplication played a major role in the expansion of the cotton gene family. All SKP1-like proteins were classified into three different subfamilies via phylogenetic analysis. Furthermore, we focused on a comprehensive analysis of genes in . The cis-acting elements in the promoter site of the genes predict their involvement in multiple hormonal and defense stress responses. The expression patterns results indicated that 16 genes were expressed in response to biotic or abiotic stresses. To further validate the role of the genes in salt stress, four genes were randomly selected for gene silencing via VIGS. The results showed that the silencing of resulted in the inhibition of plant growth under salt stress, suggesting that was involved in the response to salt stress. In addition, yeast two-hybrid results revealed that proteins have different abilities to interact with F-box proteins. These results provide valuable information for elucidating the evolutionary relationships of the gene family and aiding further studies on the function of genes in cotton.