Specifications table.

Subject area	Biology
More specific subject area	Plant proteomics
Type of data	Table and figure
How data was acquired	Plant phenotype: DP72 light microscope (Olympus, Japan)
Scan electron microscopy: scanning electron microscopy S-530 (HITACHI, Japan)
Mass spectrometry: AB SCIEX Triple TOF 5600 System (AB SCIEX, USA)
Quantitative real-time PCR: ABI 7500 real-time PCR system (Applied Biosystems, USA)
Data format	Processed
Experimental factors	No pretreatment of samples was performed
Experimental features	Total anther protein was extracted from mutant and wild-type plants by triplicate using a TCA–acetone method. Three replicates iTRAQ-facilitated proteomic analysis were conducted for protein identification and quantification. Any protein changed with a≥1.5-fold difference and a p-Value≤0.05 in at least two replicates would thus be considered as a significant DEP in our data.
Data source location	Cotton anther samples were collected in Anyang, Henan Province, China. iTRAQ-facilitated proteomic analysis were conducted in Beijing Genomics Institute, Shenzhen, Guangdong Province, China.
Data accessibility	The mass spectrometry proteomics data have been deposited to the ProteomeXchange Consortium via the PRIDE partner repository with the dataset identifier PXD002209. The reviewer account: username, reviewer23539@ebi.ac.uk; password: 3ts0ERFU.