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ARS Home » Pacific West Area » Salinas, California » Crop Improvement and Protection Research » Research » Publications at this Location » Publication #395194

Research Project: Disease Management and Improved Detection Systems for Control of Pathogens of Vegetables and Strawberries

Location: Crop Improvement and Protection Research

Title: Genome resource for the Verticillium wilt resistant Gossypium hirsutum cultivar Zhongzhimian No. 2

Author
item LI, RAN - CHINESE ACADEMY OF AGRICULTURAL SCIENCES
item ZHANG, YONG-JUN - CHINESE ACADEMY OF AGRICULTURAL SCIENCES
item MA, XI-YUE - CHINESE ACADEMY OF AGRICULTURAL SCIENCES
item LI, SONG-KE - CHINESE ACADEMY OF AGRICULTURAL SCIENCES
item Klosterman, Steven
item CHEN, JIE-YIN - CHINESE ACADEMY OF AGRICULTURAL SCIENCES
item SUBBARAO, KRISHNA - UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA
item DAI, XIAO-FENG - CHINESE ACADEMY OF AGRICULTURAL SCIENCES

Submitted to: Molecular Plant-Microbe Interactions
Publication Type: Peer Reviewed Journal
Publication Acceptance Date: 12/3/2022
Publication Date: 1/23/2023
Citation: Li, R., Zhang, Y.J., Ma, X.Y., Li, S.K., Klosterman, S.J., Chen, J.Y., Subbarao, K.V., Dai, X.F. 2023. Genome resource for the Verticillium wilt resistant Gossypium hirsutum cultivar Zhongzhimian No. 2. Molecular Plant-Microbe Interactions. 36(1):68-72. https://doi.org/10.1094/MPMI-10-22-0205-A.
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1094/MPMI-10-22-0205-A

Interpretive Summary: Cotton is an important cash crop worldwide as it is a major source of natural fibers and oil seeds, and grown in India, the United States, (U.S.) and China. Verticillium wilt disease, caused by the plant pathogenic fungus Verticillium dahliae, is the main disease affecting cotton worldwide, and causes economic losses. Resistant cotton cultivars offer the optimal method of managing the disease. Thus, identifying Verticillium wilt resistance in cotton germplasm and its incorporation into elite cultivars has been a priority for cotton breeding programs. However, most of the cotton cultivars planted remain susceptible to Verticillium wilt. In this study, we sequenced and characterized the whole genome of a Verticillium wilt resistant cotton cultivar known as Zhongzhimian No.2. This resource will be useful to breeding programs that aim to identify the genetic basis of Verticillium wilt resistance and incorporate this trait into elite cultivars for widespread field deployment.

Technical Abstract: Verticillium wilt, caused by the fungal pathogen Verticillium dahliae, is the major cause of disease-related yield losses in cotton (Gossypium hirsutum). Despite these losses, the major cultivars of G. hirsutum remain highly susceptible to Verticillium wilt. The lack of understanding on the genetic basis for Verticillium wilt resistance may further hinder progress in deploying elite cultivars with proven resistance, such as the wilt resistant G. hirsutum cultivar Zhongzhimian No. 2. To help remedy this knowledge gap, we sequenced the whole genome of Zhongzhimian No. 2 and assembled it from a combination of PacBio long reads, Illumina short reads, and high-throughput chromosome conformation capture technologies. The final assembly of the genome was 2.33 Gb, encoding 95,327 predicted coding sequences. The GC content was 34.39% with 99.2% of the bases anchored to 26 pseudo-chromosomes that ranged from 53.8 to 127.7 Mb. This resource will help gain a detailed understanding of the genomic features governing high yield and Verticillium wilt resistance in this cultivar. Comparative genomics will be particularly helpful, since there are several published genomes of other Gossypium species.