Location: Plant Stress and Germplasm Development Research
Project Number: 3096-21000-022-034-R
Project Type: Reimbursable Cooperative Agreement
Start Date: Jan 1, 2021
End Date: Dec 31, 2021
Objective:
1. Continue identifying the range of diversity or drought tolerance on selected entries within the USDA-ARS cotton germplasm collection and inhouse developed populations.
2. Identify cotton germplasm with improved fiber qualities when grown under limited irrigation and improved disease tolerance, such as FOV4.
Approach:
Crop breeding programs have been successful in developing cultivars with high-yields under optimal conditions. However, the current levels of production are under threat by the fact that the climate is getting hotter and drier and aquifers, such as the Ogallala, are being depleted faster than they can be replenished. In addition, rainfall in the future is predicted to decline to 30 to 127 mm in most counties of the Texas High Plains and Rolling Plains because of climate unrest. Upland cotton (Gossypium hirsutum L.) is the major crop grown in the High Plains of Texas, and the lower humidity associated with the predicted reduction in rain raises the possibility of increased vegetative-canopy water-deficit stress and reproductive (boll production) dehydration stress. Plant stress due to limited irrigation or drought has a major detrimental impact on yield and fiber quality traits such as length, strength and uniformity. We will characterize a selected number of breeding lines (around 100) from a recombinant inbred population that was developed from a cross between NM12Y1004 and SA-3208 for possible germplasm release. These two parents are known to carry genes for FOV4 resistance, probably from G. barbadense or Pima or long staple cotton. In addition, breeding material developed/generated from a previous cooperative project will be evaluated in naturally infested FOV4 fields and seeded in replicated plots at the El Paso TX region to assess the response to FOV4 infection/damage and level of resistance/tolerance on these developed breeding lines. Developed progeny and breeding lines were derived from parents such as Pima-S6, NemX, and newly identified and developed tolerant Upland sources. The proposed research will use traditional plant-mapping methods, stress bioassay, disease evaluation/pathology protocols, and unmanned aerial systems (UAS) to identify cotton breeding lines or germplasm with improved fiber qualities when grown under limited irrigation or stress/drought conditions. UAS has become increasingly important as a tool for both high-throughput phenotyping and crop management. We have recently developed and tested a combination of low-cost, consumer-grade hardware and open-source software for its utility in estimating cotton development and yield in rain-grown and irrigated production settings. Our research will identify new lines with enhanced fiber quality and yields under limited irrigation and/or dryland production systems and with improved FOV4 resistance/tolerance.
