Cotton Genomics and Genetics 2025, Vol.16, No.1, 12-20 http://cropscipublisher.com/index.php/cgg 12 Feature Review Open Access Study on Strategies for Improving Cotton's Resistance to Abiotic Stress through Gene Editing Wenzhong Huang Biomass Research Center, Hainan Institute of Tropical Agricultural Resouces, Sanya, 572025, Hainan, China Corresponding email: wenzhong.huang@hitar.org Cotton Genomics and Genetics, 2025, Vol.16, No.1 doi: 10.5376/cgg.2025.16.0002 Received: 17 Dec., 2024 Accepted: 20 Jan., 2025 Published: 29 Jan., 2025 Copyright © 2025 Huang, This is an open access article published under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited. Preferred citation for this article: Huang W.Z., 2025, Study on strategies for improving cotton's resistance to abiotic stress through gene editing, Cotton Genomics and Genetics, 16(1): 12-20 (doi: 10.5376/cgg.2025.16.0002) Abstract Cotton is an important crop for global agriculture and textile industry and is often subjected to various abiotic stresses that limit its productivity. This study explores gene editing strategies to enhance cotton's tolerance to drought, salt, and extreme temperature. We provide an overview of the major abiotic stresses affecting cotton, including their physiological effects, and highlight cutting-edge gene editing technologies such as CRISPR/Cas systems, TALENs, ZFNs, base editing, and prime editing. We also focus on key molecular targets such as stress-responsive transcription factors, osmotic regulator biosynthesis genes, and signal transduction elements. A detailed case study demonstrates the successful application of CRISPR/Cas9 in editing GhDREB2 and other stress-related genes to improve drought tolerance, supported by phenotypic and transcriptomic validation. We also discuss major challenges such as off-target effects, regulatory issues, and limitations of cotton transformation efficiency. Looking ahead, we emphasize the integration of multi-omics data, AI-assisted design tools, and non-transgenic approaches to improve precision and public acceptance. This study highlights the transformative potential of gene editing in breeding abiotic stress-resistant cotton varieties and envisions a sustainable future for cotton agriculture through precision biotechnology. Keywords Cotton; Abiotic stress; Gene editing; CRISPR/Cas9; Stress tolerance improvement 1 Introduction Cotton is an important cash crop in many countries, but it is quite "picky" about the environment. For example, it is easy to be "out of shape" when encountering drought, saline-alkali land, large temperature differences, or even high heavy metal content in the soil. These abiotic stresses, to put it bluntly, make it difficult for cotton to grow normally, and eventually reduce production, and even the quality will deteriorate. Many cotton-growing areas around the world are actually facing similar problems, not just a special case in a certain region (Wang et al., 2017; Zafar et al., 2020; Kilwake et al., 2023). What to do? We can only rely on improving varieties. But it is not simply to increase yields, but more importantly to make cotton itself "stand up". For example, if it can reduce leaf loss during drought and germinate in saline-alkali land, then the problem will be solved. Interestingly, this type of highly stress-resistant variety can not only reduce the use of fertilizers and pesticides, but also provide an extra insurance in today's increasingly unstable climate (Saud and Wang, 2022; Shiraku et al., 2022; Kumar et al., 2023). Traditional breeding is certainly doing this, but the speed is too slow. At this time, gene editing technology is particularly important. In particular, the CRISPR/Cas system can accurately "start" whether it is to transform functional genes that control drought resistance or to regulate components that respond to salt stress. Moreover, some methods can also do not introduce exogenous DNA, which is a significant advantage for public acceptance and regulatory review (He et al., 2020; Ling et al., 2024). This study wants to sort out these contents. We will not just make a list, but will make a systematic summary from the identification of key genes, the use of gene editing technology, to how to use these tools to breed more adaptable cotton varieties. I hope this information can be helpful to colleagues in scientific research and breeding, especially you and me who are facing the problem of "difficult to serve" cotton.
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