Gossypium herbaceum L
Gene networks controlling drought traits in Gossypium herbaceum L.
Background: Plants adapts to water deficit conditions via a series of physiological, cellular, molecular and metabolic processes culminating in stress tolerance. Gossypium herbaceum also known as Levant cotton, is  a species well adapted to semi-arid to arid region but still poorly explored for its biology of adaptation.   Methodology and principal findings: Our present study focused on physiological and genomic exploration of tolerant and sensitive genotypes of G herbaceum to understand probable physiological, genetic and metabolic networks that governs the adaptability of this species to water deficit stress. In this study we identified Vagad as tolerant and RAHS 14 as sensitive genotypes to drought stress. The overall physiological parameters showed that Vagad senses drought at much early stage that leads to more effective water utilization under irrigated and drought condition to that of RAHS 14 which did not show significant differences in WUE. The distinct physiological responses of Vagad augment it to adapt water deficit as compared to RAHS 14. Concurrent with physiological data the microarray analysis of Vagad and RAHS 14, transcriptome showed that Vagad has many biological, cellular and metabolic processes which help it to adapt to water stress condition.   Conclusions/significance: We identified 430 genes responsive to drought stress in Vagad and 411 genes RAHS14 in our microarray study. Further transcriptome sequencing from drought treated leaf and root samples on Roche''s GS_FLX pyrosequencer resulted in identification of 40550 unique transcripts in G. herabceum. These unique genes in Vagad and RAHS 14 represent distinct metabolic processes and further supplement our physiological and microarray study.