Cotton is an irreplaceable economic crop currently domesticated in the human world for its extremely elongated fiber cells specialized in seed epidermis, which makes it of high research and application value. To date, numerous research on cotton has navigated various aspects, from multi-genome assembly, genome editing, mechanism of fiber development, metabolite biosynthesis, and analysis to genetic breeding. Genomic and 3D genomic studies reveal the origin of cotton species and the spatiotemporal asymmetric chromatin structure in fibers. Mature multiple genome editing systems, such as CRISPR/Cas9, Cas12 (Cpf1) and cytidine base editing (CBE), have been widely used in the study of candidate genes affecting fiber development. Based on this, the cotton fiber cell development network has been preliminarily drawn. Among them, the MYB-bHLH-WDR (MBW) transcription factor complex and IAA and BR signaling pathway regulate the initiation; various plant hormones, including ethylene, mediated regulatory network and membrane protein overlap fine-regulate elongation. Multistage transcription factors targeting CesA 4, 7, and 8 specifically dominate the whole process of secondary cell wall thickening. And fluorescently labeled cytoskeletal proteins can observe real-time dynamic changes in fiber development. Furthermore, research on the synthesis of cotton secondary metabolite gossypol, resistance to diseases and insect pests, plant architecture regulation, and seed oil utilization are all conducive to finding more high-quality breeding-related genes and subsequently facilitating the cultivation of better cotton varieties. This review summarizes the paramount research achievements in cotton molecular biology over the last few decades from the above aspects, thereby enabling us to conduct a status review on the current studies of cotton and provide strong theoretical support for the future direction.

Hypertension has become a growing public health concern worldwide. In fact, hypertension is commonly associated with increased morbidity and mortality. Currently, oligonucleotide drugs have proven to be promising therapeutic agents for various diseases. In the present study, we aimed to demonstrate that a herbal small RNA (sRNA), XKC-sRNA-h3 (B55710460, F221. I000082.B11), exhibits potent antihypertensive effects by targeting angiotensin-converting enzyme (ACE) in mice. When compared with captopril, oral administration of the sphingosine (d18:1)-XKC-sRNA-h3 bencaosome more effectively prevented angiotensin II-induced hypertensive cardiac damage and alleviated kidney injury in mice. Such findings indicated that XKC-sRNA-h3 may be a novel orally available ACE inhibitor type oligonucleotide drug for hypertension.