The genomic basis of geographic differentiation and fiber improvement in cultivated cotton

Research progress in the population differentiation and geographical adaptation of cotton

“…This phenomenon was also found in other Upland cotton populations (He et al 2019(He et al , 2020. He et al (2021) published a study in Nature Genetics that provided insights into the genomic basis of population differentiation and geographical distribution in cultivated G. hirsutum. Based on an analysis of genomic variation in 3 248 tetraploid cotton germplasms, he and colleagues, mainly from the Institute of Cotton Research, Chinese Academy of Agricultural Sciences (ICR, CAAS), clearly illuminated large-scale inversions on chromosomes A06 and A08.…”

Genome-Wide Introgression and Quantitative Trait Locus Mapping Reveals the Potential of Asian Cotton (Gossypium arboreum) in Improving Upland Cotton (Gossypium hirsutum)

“…One effective strategy for broadening the genetic diversity is to transfer favorable genes into modern cultivars by intraspecific or interspecific hybridization. At present, studies are mainly focused on intraspecific G. hirsutum and interspecific G. hirsutum × G. barbadense populations (Said et al, 2015 ; Wang et al, 2019a ; Zhang et al, 2019 ), and some elite lines have been developed for gene-function studies and breeding (Cao et al, 2014 ; Wan et al, 2016 ; Fang et al, 2017b ; Feng et al, 2019 ; Wang et al, 2019a ; He et al, 2021 ). However, to obtain cotton varieties with high yield, quality, and resistance, relying on these above populations is insufficient.…”

“…Sacks and Robinson ( 2009 ) crossed G. arboreum with a hexaploid 2[(AD 1 )D 4 ] bridging the line to obtain a tetraploid triple-species hybrid, and achieved introgression of resistance to reniform nematode ( Rotylenchulus reniformis ) into upland cotton from G. arboreum by consecutive backcrossing. He et al ( 2021 ) analyzed 3,248 tetraploid cotton genomes; introgression and association analyses identified new fiber quality-related loci and demonstrated that introgressed alleles on chromosome A09 from G. arboreum had a large effect on fiber quality, with an improvement of nearly 15% in fiber length and strength. Obviously, the transfer of elite traits from G. arboreum to G. hirsutum could make significant contributions to the genetic improvement of cotton.…”

Breeding cotton with superior fiber quality: identification and utilization of multiple elite loci and exotic genetic resources

“…It revealed the genetic basis of cotton population differentiation and ecological adaptation caused by chromosome structure variation. It also provided new insights to improve fiber quality by exogenous introgression and recombination of the elite fiber-quality related loci with pyramiding effect in cotton (He et al, 2021). He et al (2021) identified abundant loci related to fiber length, fiber strength, and fiber elongation by analyzing the genotype and multi-environmental fiber traits of 1,245 Up-land cotton accessions, which comprise landraces, cultivars, and introgression lines.…”

“…It also provided new insights to improve fiber quality by exogenous introgression and recombination of the elite fiber-quality related loci with pyramiding effect in cotton (He et al, 2021). He et al (2021) identified abundant loci related to fiber length, fiber strength, and fiber elongation by analyzing the genotype and multi-environmental fiber traits of 1,245 Up-land cotton accessions, which comprise landraces, cultivars, and introgression lines. Tracking of favorable alleles of these loci unveiled that most of them were directly selected or recombined from landraces of G. hirsutum.…”