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ARS Home » Plains Area » Lubbock, Texas » Cropping Systems Research Laboratory » Plant Stress and Germplasm Development Research » Research » Publications at this Location » Publication #319356

Title: Exploring high throughput phenotyping, plant architecture and plant-boll distribution for improving drought tolerance in cotton

Author
item WITT, TRAVIS - Texas Tech University
item Ulloa, Mauricio
item AULD, DICK - Texas Tech University
item Schwartz, Robert
item RITCHIE, GLEN - Texas Tech University
item Pelletier, Mathew
item Burke, John

Submitted to: Meeting Abstract
Publication Type: Abstract Only
Publication Acceptance Date: 9/5/2015
Publication Date: 10/18/2015
Citation: Witt, T.W., Ulloa, M., Auld, D.L., Schwartz, R.C., Ritchie, G.L., Pelletier, M.G., Burke, J.J. 2015. Exploring high throughput phenotyping, plant architecture and plant-boll distribution for improving drought tolerance in cotton [abstract]. The Association for the Advancement of Industrial Crops, October 18-22, 2015, Lubbock, Texas. p. 58.

Interpretive Summary:

Technical Abstract: There is a pressing need to identify and understand the effects of different irrigation regimes on plant-boll distribution, seed cotton yield, and plant architecture for improving yield and fiber quality under stress and/or drought tolerance of cotton (Gossypium spp.) cultivars. To identify the impact of different irrigation levels on the Texas High Plains 11 commercial cultivars and 7 breeding lines representing diverse genotypes and phenotypes were subjected to three drip-irrigation water regimes. This study had four replications and four row plots 7.62 m per entry arranged in a RCBD within each regime. Differences in soil water use were found between the different genotypes based on neutron probe data. Differences between genotypes based on total water use and irrigation level were also observed. Analyses of boll distribution revealed that there were significant differences (P less than 0.05) between boll distribution and position of all cultivars across all water levels and cultivars within each water rate. High throughput phenotyping (HTP) also showed differences between cultivars based on leaf area indices (LAI), temperature, and plant heights. This data suggests that certain cultivars will be more beneficial under one irrigation then another. These findings also suggest that certain cultivars may perform well under multiple irrigation levels. We are exploring HTP to estimate the stress levels of diverse genotypes under multiple irrigation regimes and breed for better drought tolerance in the future.