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ARS Home » Plains Area » College Station, Texas » Southern Plains Agricultural Research Center » Crop Germplasm Research » Research » Publications at this Location » Publication #144699
Title: MOLECULAR TAGGING OF A MAJOR QTL FOR FIBER STRENGTH IN UPLAND COTTON AND ITS MARKER-ASSISTED SELECTION

Author
item ZHANG, TIANZHEN - NANJING AGRIC. UNIV.
item YUAN, YOULU - NANJING AGRIC. UNIV
item Yu, John
item GUO, WANGZHEN - NANJING AGRIC. UNIV.
item Kohel, Russell

Submitted to: Acta Genetica Scinica
Publication Type: Peer Reviewed Journal
Publication Acceptance Date: 8/6/2001
Publication Date: 8/6/2001
Citation: N/A

Interpretive Summary: Upland cotton consists of over 90% of fiber production by the farmers and it has high yield potential but low fiber quality, relative to Sea Island cotton or extra long staple (ELS) cotton. Improvement of fiber quality in the Upland cotton is a necessary objective in breeding programs. However, most genetic factors or genes for fiber quality will have to be transferred from the Sea Island cotton to the Upland cotton. This study identified two major genes called quantitative trait loci (QTLs) that were responsible for fiber quality in an Upland cotton line called 7235. One gene was determined to reside on chromosome 10 of cotton and the location of the other gene remained to be determined. Field tests from four environments in China and USA showed that these two genes improved fiber strength, length, and fineness, important in fiber quality. DNA markers linked to these genes are valuable tools to select high-yield cotton with superior fiber.

Technical Abstract: Fiber is a basic raw material in the textile industry. The changes in spinning technology have in common the requirement of unique and often greater cotton fiber quality, especially strength, for processing. We used a Gossypium anomalum introgression line, 7235, characterized by good fiber quality properties, to identify molecular markers linked to fiber-strength QTLs. By the use of F2 and F3 populations derived from a cross between 7235 and TM-1, a genetic standard of Upland cotton, nine molecular markers, three SSRs and six RAPDs, were identified to be linked to two QTLs for fiber strength. One was amajor QTL, QTLFS1, detected both in Nanjing and Hainan, China, and the Texas College Station, USA. It was found to be associated with eight markers and explained more than 30% of the phenotypic variation. QTLFS1 was mapped to chromosome 10. The major QTL in 7235 was identified to be transferred from an Acala 3080 cotton. The marker-assisted selection revealed that DNA markers linked to this QTL could be used in increasing the fiber strength of commercial cultivars.