Verticillium wilt is a soil-borne disease, and severely limits the development of cotton production. To investigate the role of endophytic fungi on Verticillium wilt, CEF-818 (Penicillium simplicissimum), CEF-714 (Leptosphaeria sp.), CEF-642 (Talaromyces flavus.) and CEF-193 (Acremonium sp.) isolated from cotton roots were used to assess their effects against cotton wilt disease caused by a defoliating V. dahliae strain Vd080. In the greenhouse, all treatments significantly reduced disease incidence and disease index, with the control efficacy ranging from 26% (CEF-642) to 67% (CEF-818) at 25 days (d) after inoculation. In the disease nursery, compared to controls (with disease incidence of 33.8% and disease index of 31), CEF-818, CEF-193, CEF-714 and CEF-642 provided a protection effect of 69.5%, 69.2%, 54.6% and 45.7%, respectively. Especially, CEF-818 and CEF-714 still provided well protection against Verticillium wilt with 46.9% and 56.6% or 14.3% and 33.7% at the first peak of the disease in heavily infected field, respectively (in early July). These results indicated that these endophytes not only delayed but also reduced wilt symptoms on cotton. In the harvest, the available cotton bolls of plant treated with CEF-818 and CEF-714 increased to 13.1, and 12.2, respectively. And the seed cotton yield significantly increased after seed bacterization with CEF-818 (3442.04 kg/ha) compared to untreated control (3207.51 kg/ha) by 7.3%. Furtherly, CEF-818 and CET-714 treatment increased transcript levels for PAL, PPO, POD, which leads to the increase of cotton defense reactions. Our results indicate that seed treatment of cotton plants with CEF-818 and CET-714 can help in the biocontrol of V. dahliae and improve seed cotton yield in cotton fields. This study provided a better understanding of cotton-endophyte interactions which will aid in developing effective biocontrol agents for Verticillium wilt of cotton in futhre.

As a result of changing consumer preferences, cotton (Gossypium Hirsutum L.) from varieties with naturally colored fibers is becoming increasingly sought after in the textile industry. The molecular mechanisms leading to colored fiber development are still largely unknown, although it is expected that the color is derived from flavanoids. Firstly, four key genes of the flavonoid biosynthetic pathway in cotton (GhC4H, GhCHS, GhF3′H, and GhF3′5′H) were cloned and studied their expression profiles during the development of brown- and white cotton fibers by QRT-PCR. And then, the concentrations of four components of the flavonoid biosynthetic pathway, naringenin, quercetin, kaempferol and myricetin in brown- and white fibers were analyzed at different developmental stages by HPLC. The predicted proteins of the four flavonoid structural genes corresponding to these genes exhibit strong sequence similarity to their counterparts in various plant species. Transcript levels for all four genes were considerably higher in developing brown fibers than in white fibers from a near isogenic line (NIL). The contents of four flavonoids (naringenin, quercetin, kaempferol and myricetin) were significantly higher in brown than in white fibers and corresponding to the biosynthetic gene expression levels. Flavonoid structural gene expression and flavonoid metabolism are important in the development of pigmentation in brown cotton fibers.

Verticillium wilt is a plant vascular disease caused by the soilborne fungus Verticillium dahliae that severely limits cotton production. In a previous study, we screened Bacillus cereus YUPP‐10, an efficient antagonistic bacterium, to uncover mechanisms for controlling verticillium wilt. Here, we report a novel antimicrobial cyclodextrin glycosyltransferase (CGTase) from YUPP‐10. Compared to other CGTases, six different conserved domains were identified, and six mutants were constructed by gene splicing with overlap extension PCR. Functional analysis showed that domain D was important for hydrolysis activity and domains A1 and C were important for inducing disease resistance. Direct effects of recombinant CGTase on V. dahliae included reduced mycelial growth, spore germination, spore production, and microsclerotia germination. In addition, CGTase also elicited cotton's innate defence reactions. Transgenic Arabidopsis thaliana lines that overexpress CGTase showed higher resistance to verticillium wilt. Transgenic CGTase A. thaliana plants grew faster and resisted disease better. CGTase overexpression enabled a burst of reactive oxygen species production and activated pathogenesis‐related gene expression, indicating that the transgenic cotton was better prepared to protect itself from infection. Our work revealed that CGTase could inhibit the growth of V. dahliae, activate innate immunity, and play a major role in the biocontrol of fungal pathogens.

Verticillium wilt, caused by the notorious fungal pathogen Verticillium dahliae, is one of the main limiting factors for cotton production. Due to the stable dormant structure microsclerotia, long-term variability and co-evolution with host plant, its pathogenicity mechanism is very complicated, and the interaction mechanism between pathogen and host plant is also unclear. So identification and functional analysis of the genes involved in the pathogenicity or virulence of this fungus will benefit to uncover the molecular pathogenic mechanism of V. dahliae. In this review, many multifunction genes covering microsclerotia development, pathogen infection, effector proteins, transcription factors, horizontal gene transfer and trans-kingdom RNA silencing have been summarized to provide a theoretical basis to deep understand the molecular pathogenicity mechanism of V. dahliae and promote to effectively control Verticillium wilt. Furtherly, these pathogenicity-related genes may be considered as targets for effective control of Verticillium wilt in cotton.

Verticillium dahliae is a soilborne fungal pathogen that causes a destructive vascular disease on a large number of plant hosts, resulting in great threat to agricultural production. In this study, it was illustrated that the hydrophobin VdHP1 could induce cell death and activate plant immune responses.

This study showed that α-galactosidase VdGAL4 of V. dahliae could activate plant immune response and plays an important role in conidial morphology and yield, formation of microsclerotia, and mycelial penetration. VdGAL4 deletion mutants significantly reduced the pathogenicity of V. dahliae . These findings deepened the understanding of pathogenic virulence factors and how the mechanism of pathogenic fungi infected the host, which may help to seek new strategies for effective control of plant diseases caused by pathogenic fungi.