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Fig. 1  GhSBP1 promotes fiber development in cotton. A, relative expression of GhSBP1 at different stages of fiber development. Error bars represent ±SD (n=3). B, Sanger sequencing-based genotyping of GhSBP1-knockout lines generated via CRISPR-Cas9 gene editing. Nucleotide deletions are indicated by red dashes; nucleotide insertions are shown with red letters. C, Western blot analysis detecting GhSBP1-Flag protein in 10-DPA fibers from wild-type (WT) and GhSBP1-overexpressing cotton plants. D, Images of 10-DPA fiber cells from wild-type and GhSBP1 transgenic cotton plants. Scale bar, 10 μm. E, Statistical analysis of fiber length presented in D. Error bars represent ±SD (n=30). P-values were calculated by one-way Analyze variance (ANOVA) followed by Tukey’s post-hoc test. ^**, P<0.01. F, Images of mature fiber cells from wild-type and GhSBP1 transgenic cotton plants. Scale bar, 10 mm. G, Statistical analysis of fiber length shown in F. Error bars represent ±SD (n=30). P-values were determined using one-way ANOVA with Tukey’s post-hoc test. ^**, P<0.01; ^***, P<0.001. H, Phenotypic characterization of fiber initiation cells in wild-type cotton, GhSBP1-OE, and GhSBP1-Cas9 lines. Scale bar, 100 μm. I, Quantitative analysis of fiber initiation phenotypes from H. Error bars represent ±SD (n=30). P-values were calculated by one-way ANOVA followed by Tukey’s post-hoc test. ^*, P<0.05; ns, P>0.05.