Fig. 4

A representative C-lncRNA that screened as affecting cotton seedling drought tolerance. A: Schematic showing the collinear position of XLOC_227558, between Gossypium arboreum (Ga) chr3 and Gossypium hirsutum (Gh) A08. This gene is syntenic with XLOC_227558. The lower graph shows a stack view of the locus with leaf RNA-seq reads from Ga and Gh. Blue box, PCGs; red box, lncRNAs; dashed box, syntenic lncRNA region. B: Photos showing cotton seedlings (n = 16) treated with TRV2::XLOC_227558 and TRV2::00 before drought treatment, after drought treatment, and after water recovery. Bar = 5 cm. C: Histogram showing the relative expression level of XLOC_227558 in TRV2::XLOC_227558 and TRV2::00 treated plants as quantified by qRT-PCR. Error bar: standard error of the mean. Asterisks indicate significant difference between samples (Student’s t-test, *, p < .05; **, p < .01). R.E.L., relative expression level. D-G: Histograms showing the respective relative expression levels of GhABF1, GhPYL9, GhRD22A, and GhRD22D in TRV2::XLOC_227558 and TRV2::00 treated plants as quantified by qRT-PCR. Error bar: standard error of the mean. Asterisks indicate significant difference between samples (Student’s t-test, *, p < .05; **, p < .01). R.E.L., relative expression level. H: Histogram showing the relative expression of XLOC_227558 and its adjacent PCG Gh_A08G1105 as determined by qRT-PCR. Error bar: standard error of the mean. Asterisks indicate significant difference between samples (Student’s t-test, *, p < .05; **, p < .01). I: Scatterplot showing the linear relationship between expression of XLOC_227558 and that of the adjacent PCG, Gh_A08G1105, under different abiotic stressors. J: Co-expression network of Gh_A08G1105