2012 Annual Report 1a.Objectives (from AD-416): The objective of this cooperative research project is to cooperatively evaluate during the breeding process new strains of long-staple upland cottons (Acala 1517) for their ginnability and textile quality as means for guiding variety development. Desirable genes for fiber quality and other traits (e.g., insect and herbicide resistance) will be identified and used in the breeding process. 1b.Approach (from AD-416): All projects will be conducted by evaluating the following areas:. 1)varietal interactions with mechanical processing both in the gin and the textile mill on fiber, yarn and fabric quality, and process efficiency,. 2)integrate genetic and genomic tools in the breeding process to incorporate useful genes for ginnability and textile quality, and. 3)process and evaluate in the gin and textile mill new upland cotton strains in reference to areas 1 and 2 in order to aid in cotton breeder variety selection and development. 3.Progress Report: In FY2012 work continued on developing cotton breeding lines that exhibited some degree of salt and/or drought tolerance. No experimental strains/varieties were ginned from the 2011 crop year as none were at a development stage judged suitable for ginning or textile processing evaluations. It is expected that some experimental selections from the 2012 crop year will be evaluated for ginning and textile processing quality during FY2013.