Identification of drought tolerant cotton germplasm and associated markers in the u. S. Upland germplasm pool

---

See discussions, stats, and author profiles for this publication at: 

https://www.researchgate.net/publication/319018845

Identification of drought tolerant cotton germplasm and associated markers in

the U.S. Upland germplasm pool

Poster

 · January 2015

CITATIONS

0

READS

91

5 authors

, including:

Some of the authors of this publication are also working on these related projects:

Genetic variation of dynamic fiber elongation and developmental quantitative trait locus mapping of fiber length in upland cotton (Gossypium hirsutum L.)

 

View project

Plant Genomics

 

View project

Priyanka Tyagi

Q2 Lab Solutions

33

 

PUBLICATIONS

   

433

 

CITATIONS

   

SEE PROFILE

S.E. Hughs

Agricultural Research Service

182

 

PUBLICATIONS

   

1,739

 

CITATIONS

   

SEE PROFILE

Jinfa Zhang

New Mexico State University

568

 

PUBLICATIONS

   

5,477

 

CITATIONS

   

SEE PROFILE

All content following this page was uploaded by 

Jinfa Zhang

 on 09 August 2017.

The user has requested enhancement of the downloaded file.

---

IDENTIFICATION OF DROUGHT TOLERANT COTTON GERMPLASM AND 

ASSOCIATED MARKERS IN THE U.S. UPLAND GERMPLASM POOL 

A. Abdelraheem 

J. Zhang 

New Mexico State University 

Las Cruces, NM 

 P. Tyagi 

V. Kuraparthy 

North Carolina State University 

Raleigh, NC 

S. E. Hughs 

USDA-ARS Southwestern Cotton Ginning Research Laboratory 

Mesilla Park, NM 

 

Abstract 

 

Drought tolerance is a complex trait, which is controlled by many quantitative trait loci with low heritability, and 

interactions between loci and between genotype and environmental factors. Cotton production requires 24-48 inches 

of water during its growing season. However, the southwest and west U.S. including New Mexico has far less than 

the amount needed. Although development of cultivars tolerant to drought stress is an objective in many breeding 

programs, success is limited. One of the main reasons is that the most commonly used method to evaluate yield 

potential is to grow cotton under optimum conditions. Upland cotton exhibited higher genetic diversity than the 

other cultivated tertaploid cotton, Pima cotton. However, the bottleneck through domesticated and reselection 

towards only a few germplasm has led to the loss of genetic diversity. Thus, old germplasm can be used to improve 

crop productivity through breeding program. In recent years, the association mapping strategy has been conducted in 

many crops including cotton; however, a few of them were used to study biotic stress tolerance. In this study, an 

association panel consisting of 367 Upland cotton accessions (released between the early 1900s and 2005) from 14 

different states in the U.S. was evaluated in a replicated test in the greenhouse for drought tolerance using 10% of 

polyethylene glycol (PEG) imposed after the second true leaf stage. The experiment was arranged in a randomized 

complete block design with 3 replications. The same experimental design was used to evaluate the accessions under 

control (irrigation with water) conditions. Plant measurements on chlorophyll reading, plant height, shoot fresh and 

root fresh weights were taken 3 weeks after the drought treatment. Chlorophyll readings were measured with Konica 

Minolta SPAD-502. The results showed that the PEG treatment significantly reduced plant height, fresh shoot and 

root weights. Therefore, these measures can be used to discriminate tolerance or sensitivity of cotton germplasm. 

The most tolerant germplasm lines were Acala cotton, suggesting that breeding in the arid region of the U.S. has 

improved drought tolerance in cotton. Significant genotype x treatment interactions for all the traits except for dry 

root weight were detected, suggesting that control treatment are needed when evaluating different genotypes for 

PEG-induced drought tolerance. Out of more than 500 SSR markers amplified from 135 primer pairs, 20 from 11 

chromosomes were significantly correlated with drought tolerance. Five (on chromosomes c10, c21, c23, c24 and 

c25) of the 20 markers were associated with more than two or three traits. The associated SSR markers for drought 

tolerance identified in this study will be useful to understand the genetic basis of drought tolerance in cotton. 

355

2015 Beltwide Cotton Conferences, San Antonio, TX, January 5-7, 2015

View publication stats

View publication stats