About the Authors

Da Yong Zhang

Contributed equally to this work with: Da Yong Zhang, Zulfiqar Ali

Affiliation Institute of Biotechnology, Jiangsu Academy of Agricultural Sciences, Nanjing, China

Zulfiqar Ali

Contributed equally to this work with: Da Yong Zhang, Zulfiqar Ali

zulfiqarpbg@hotmail.com (ZA); hxma@jaas.ac.cn (HXM)

Affiliations Institute of Biotechnology, Jiangsu Academy of Agricultural Sciences, Nanjing, China, Department of Plant Breeding and Genetics, University of Agriculture, Faisalabad, Pakistan

Chang Biao Wang

Affiliation Cotton Research Institute, Shanxi Agricultural Sciences, Yuncheng, China

Ling Xu

Affiliation Institute of Biotechnology, Jiangsu Academy of Agricultural Sciences, Nanjing, China

Jin Xin Yi

Affiliation Institute of Biotechnology, Jiangsu Academy of Agricultural Sciences, Nanjing, China

Zhao Long Xu

Affiliations Institute of Biotechnology, Jiangsu Academy of Agricultural Sciences, Nanjing, China, Nanjing Agricultural University, Nanjing, China

Xiao Qing Liu

Affiliation Institute of Biotechnology, Jiangsu Academy of Agricultural Sciences, Nanjing, China

Xiao Lan He

Affiliation Institute of Biotechnology, Jiangsu Academy of Agricultural Sciences, Nanjing, China

Yi Hong Huang

Affiliation Institute of Biotechnology, Jiangsu Academy of Agricultural Sciences, Nanjing, China

Iqrar Ahmad Khan

Affiliation College of Agriculture & Applied Biology, University of Agriculture, Faisalabad, Pakistan

Richard M. Trethowan

Affiliation Plant Breeding Institute, The University of Sydney, Sydney, Australia

Hong Xiang Ma

zulfiqarpbg@hotmail.com (ZA); hxma@jaas.ac.cn (HXM)

Affiliation Institute of Biotechnology, Jiangsu Academy of Agricultural Sciences, Nanjing, China

Competing Interests

The authors have declared that no competing interests exist.

Author Contributions

Conceived and designed the experiments: DYZ ZA CBW JXY IAK RMT HXM. Performed the experiments: LX ZLX XQL XLH YHH. Analyzed the data: DYZ ZA YHH. Contributed reagents/materials/analysis tools: JXY IAK RMT. Wrote the paper: ZA RMT.