Objective To analyze the changes of metabolites under the influence of cotton Fusarium wilt on root exudates of different cotton resistant varieties, classify and annotate the different metabolites, and reveal the possible pathogenic mechanism at the metabolic level.

Methods Non-target metabolomics technology was used to investigate the metabolic response of cotton fusarium fusarium to root exudates of different cotton resistant varieties. The identified metabolites were annotated and analyzed by KEGG, HMDB and Lipidmaps databases.

Results The results showed that there were significant differences in the metabolites produced by cotton fusarium wilt under the influence of root exudates of different resistant varieties, and 4996 metabolites were identified.Compared with CK group, the number of significantly different metabolites reached the maximum at 6 h for all treatment groups, while the number of different metabolites reached the maximum at 36 h for the same resistant cotton root exudates. After annotation through the KEGG database, 706 metabolites were annotated in 12 metabolic pathways. Further quantitative analysis of amino acid metabolites showed that the expression levels of leucine and phenylalanine were lower in CK group, and higher in R (resistant variety) and S (susceptible variety) treatment group, suggesting that they may play an important role in the pathogenic process of cotton fusarium wilt.

Conclusion The response of cotton fusarium wilt to root exudates of different cotton resistant varieties was significantly different, which laid a foundation for further investigation of the role of these different metabolites in the interaction between pathogen and host.