Supplementary Table S1. the Primers Used in the Present Study

Supplementary Fig. S1 Alignment of the deduced protein of GhWRKY3 with other plant WRKY proteins. The amino acid sequences used in the alignment were GhWRKY3 (Gossypium hirsutum, FJ966887), NtWRKY2 (Nicotiana tabacum, AAD16139), AtWRKY3 (Arabidopsis thaliana, NP_178433), CaWRKY2 (Capsicum annuum, ABA56495), VvWRKY2 (Vitis vinifera, XP_002264243). The identical amino acids were shaded in black. The two conserved WRKY domains were underlined and the completely conserved WRKYGQK amino acids were boxed. The cysteine and histidine residues of the putative zinc finger motif were indicated by arrowheads (▼). The putative NLS was marked by asterisks (※).

Supplementary Fig. S2 Phylogenic analysis of WRKY proteins from different plants. The phylogenic tree was generated by MEGA4.1. The amino acid sequences of WRKY proteins used for construction of the phylogenic tree were listed: SPF1 (BAA06278) from Ipomoea batatas; NtWRKY1 (BAA82107), NtWRKY2 (AAD16139), NtWRKKY3 (BAA77358) from Nicotiana tabacum; NaWRKY6 (AAS13440) from Nicotiana attenuate; GhWRKY3 (FJ966887) from Gossypium hirsutum; CaWRKY2 (ABA56495) from Capsicum annuum; VvWRKY2 (XP_002264243) from Vitis vinifera; BnWRKY17 (ACQ76799), BnWRKY11-1 (ACI14384) from Brassica napus; AtWRKY4 (NP_172849), AtWRKY3 (NP_178433), AtWRKY11 (Nt_5677878), AtWRKY67 (NP_564877), AtWRKY41 (NP_192845), AtWRKY2 (NP_200438), AtWRKY7 (NP_194155) from Arabidopsis thaliana, PtWRKY7 (ACV92009), PtWRKY24 (ACV92026), PtWRKY27 (ACV92029), PtWRKY6 (ACV92008) from (Populus tomentosa x P. bolleana) × P. tomentosa; GmWRKY50 (ABS18446), GmWRKY20 (ABS18424) from Glycine max; VaWRKY30 (AAR92477) from Vitis aestivalis; OsWRKY15 (NP_001067197), OsWRKY34 (NP_001066844), OsWRKY74 (DAA05139) from Oryza sativa.

Supplementary Fig. S3 Nucleotide sequence of putative 5′-flanking region of GhWRKY3. The transcription and translation start sites were marked with arrows. The putative core promoter consensus sequences were highlighted as grey, and the putative cis-acting elements were boxed.

Supplementary Table S1. The primers used in the present study