Label-free quantitative proteomics of cotton genotypes with contrasting resistance to leafhopper

In cotton, after the Bt introduction, lepidopteron pest attack been reduced to a greater extent, however, the sucking pests became major problem. Among the sucking pests, the leafhopper Amrasca biguttula biguttula (Ishida), considered to be a severe pest. Here, we reported the label-free quantitative proteomics to identify putative differentially expressed proteins contributing to leafhopper resistance. The results obtained from this work not only aimed to provide a new clue that will facilitate better understanding of molecular interaction between cotton plant and leafhopper, but also explored the key genes for the development of functional markers in cotton towards leafhopper resistance.