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BackgroundSoil salt stress seriously restricts the yield and quality of cotton worldwide. To investigate the molecular mechanism of cotton response to salt stress, a main cultivated variety Gossypium hirsutum L. acc. Xinluzhong 54 was used to perform transcriptome and proteome integrated analysis. ResultsThrough transcriptome analysis of cotton treated with salt stress for 0 h (T0), 3 h (T3) and 12 h (T12), we identified 8,436, 11,628 and 6,311 differentially expressed genes (DEGs) inT3 / T0, T12 / T0 and T12 / T3, respectively. A total of 459 differentially expressed proteins (DEPs) were identified by proteomic analysis, of which 273, 99 and 260 DEPs were identified in T3 / T0, T12 / T0 and T12 / T3, respectively. Metabolic pathways, biosynthesis of secondary metabolites, photosynthesis and plant hormone signal transduction were the main enrichment pathways by annotation of DEGs or DEPs. Detail analysis of the DEGs or DEPs revealed that complex signal pathways, such as ABA and JA signal, calcium signal, MAPK signal cascade, transcription factors, followed by activation of antioxidant and ion transporters, were identified to participate in regulating salt response in cotton.ConclusionsOur results not only contribute to understand the mechanism of cotton response to salt stress, but also provide nine candidate genes, which might be used for molecular breeding to improve salt-tolerance in cotton.