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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 #422087
Research Project: Management of Cotton Genetic Resources and Genetic Improvement of Cotton

Location: Crop Germplasm Research

Title: Phenotypic validation of the cotton fiber length QTL, qFL-Chr.25, and its impact on AFIS fiber quality

Author
item WAN, SJ. - University Of Georgia
item KAHANAL, S. - University Of Georgia
item BROWN, N. - University Of Georgia
item KUMAR, P. - University Of Georgia
item WEST, D. - University Of Georgia
item LUBBERS, E. - University Of Georgia
item KOTHARI, N. - Cotton, Inc
item JONES, D. - Cotton, Inc
item Hinze, Lori
item Udall, Joshua
item BRIDGES, W.C. - Clemson University
item Delhom, Christopher
item PATTERSON, A.H. - University Of Georgia
item CHEE, P.W. - University Of Georgia

Submitted to: Plants
Publication Type: Peer Reviewed Journal
Publication Acceptance Date: 6/18/2025
Publication Date: 6/24/2025
Citation: Wan, S., Kahanal, S., Brown, N., Kumar, P., West, D., Lubbers, E., Kothari, N., Jones, D., Hinze, L.L., Udall, J.A., Bridges, W., Delhom, C.D., Patterson, A., Chee, P. 2025. Phenotypic validation of the cotton fiber length QTL, qFL-Chr.25, and its impact on AFIS fiber quality. Plants. 14(13). Article 1937. https://doi.org/10.3390/plants14131937.
DOI: https://doi.org/10.3390/plants14131937

Interpretive Summary: With advancements in spinning technology, there is increased demand for cotton cultivars with improved fiber quality. Textile mills particularly value cultivars with long, fine, strong, and uniform fibers as these traits improve spinning efficiency and add value to the end-use product. Under this project, a genetic region associated with long fibers was successfully transferred into different genetic backgrounds, and subsequent fiber analyses confirmed the resulting fibers were longer than those in the unaltered genetic backgrounds. This level of increased fiber length represents a meaningful advance in cotton fiber quality improvement. The improvement of these and other fiber quality traits is crucial to maintain upland cotton's position as the preferred source of natural raw fiber, especially as it competes with synthetic fibers.

Technical Abstract: The recent advancement of spinning technology has created an increase in demand for upland cotton (Gossypium hirsutum L.) cultivars with improved fiber quality, presenting breeders with a unique challenge due to the limited phenotypic and genetic diversity within upland cotton gene pool. A potential avenue to overcome the diversity deficiencies is introgression from G. barbadense, a closely related species within upland's secondary gene pool. Sealand 883, an obsolete upland line with long and fine fiber developed via G. barbadense introgression, contains several fiber quality quantitative loci (QTLs), including a fiber length QTL on Chromosome 25, named qFL-Chr.25. The transfer of this QTL into nearly-isogenic introgression lines (NIILs) across four diverse genetic backgrounds (Acala SJ4, Deltapine 50, GA 2004089, and Paymaster HS26) allowed for the validation using High Volume Instrument (HVI). This study aimed to further investigate the effect of qFL-Chr.25 in NIILs with and without the QTL using Advanced Fiber Information System (AFIS) instrument to assess its impact on fiber length and other fiber quality traits. AFIS testing showed an overall shift in fiber length profiles toward longer fibers in the QTL(+) NIILs, resembling the profile of the QTL donor parent, SL883, compared to the QTL(-) NIILs.