Acetyl-CoA carboxylase is an important enzyme, which catalyzes acetyl-CoA’s carboxylation to produce malonyl-CoA and to serve as a committed step for
de novo
fatty acid biosynthesis in plastids. In this study, 24 putative cotton
BCCP
genes were identified based on the lately published genome data in
Gossypium
. Among them, 4, 4, 8, and 8
BCCP
homologs were identified in
Gossypium raimondii, G. arboreum, G. hirsutum
, and
G. barbadense
, respectively. These genes were divided into two classes based on a phylogenetic analysis. In each class, these homologs were relatively conserved in gene structure and motifs. The chromosomal distribution pattern revealed that all the
BCCP
genes were distributed equally on corresponding chromosomes or scaffold in the four cotton species. Segmental duplication was a predominant duplication event in both of
G. hirsutum
and
G. barbadense.
The analysis of the expression profile showed that 8
GhBCCP
genes expressed in all the tested tissues with changed expression levels, and
GhBCCP
genes belonging to class II were predominantly expressed in developing ovules. Meanwhile, the expression analysis for the 16 cotton
BCCP
genes from
G. raimondii, G. arboreum
and
G. hirsutum
showed that they were induced or suppressed by cold or salt stress, and their expression patterns varied among different tissues. These findings will help to determine the functional and evolutionary characteristics of the
BCCP
genes in
Gossypium
species.