Identification of differentially expressed drought-responsive transcripts in Egyptian cotton

There is no enough information available on drought-modulated gene(s), which can be a 
valuable gene pool for improving modern cotton cultivars. The major objective of current study was 
to identify the responsive transcripts in two elite Egyptian cotton varieties (Giza 88 and Giza 90) 
under drought stress. To accomplish this, 17% PEG6000 drought stress was applied to seedlings of 
both cultivars under greenhouse conditions. RNA isolation, differential display (DD) PCR, silver 
staining gels, purification of DD fragments, and sequencing approaches were applied. A total of 13 
out of 27 DD fragments were sequenced and 12 fragments were found with high homology to 
drought responsive gene families such as peroxidase, oxidoreductase, and kinases. Our study is 
considered as an addition to the global GenBank database of functional drought responsive 
transcripts in Egyptian cotton. Moreover, the 12 identified transcripts in our study can be used in 
multiple bioinformatics and transcriptomics cotton research.