Cotton Fiber With High Quality And Low Yield Is Identified.

The molecular breeding research group of the Cotton Research Institute of the Chinese Academy of Agricultural Sciences has combined with 13 scientific research institutions such as Northwest Agriculture and Forestry University and Zhengzhou University. The genetic basis of the negative correlation between cotton yield and fiber quality traits has been preliminarily revealed by genome wide quantitative trait loci mining. It provides important genetic resources and loci information for further improving cotton fiber quality and yield by marker assisted selection, genome editing and other technologies. The relevant research results are published online in the Journal of plant biotechnology.

The subject is mainly completed by Shang Haihong, a researcher at the Cotton Research Institute of the Chinese Academy of Agricultural Sciences. Cotton is the most widely planted fiber crop in the world, and the modern textile industry is increasingly demanding its fiber quality. However, the main components of cotton fiber yield traits -- lint percentage and cotton fiber quality traits are negatively related. It is a problem that has long troubled cotton breeding workers. It is difficult for conventional breeding methods to achieve the simultaneous improvement of cotton fiber quality and yield.

In this study, the cotton yield and fiber quality were evaluated in 22 environments of the the Yellow River River Basin and the northwest inland cotton area by using parent 0-153 and SGK9708 hybridization. And the whole genome sequencing showed that 983 of the quantitative trait loci related to yield and quality were obtained from fiber length, intensity, micron value, boll weight, lint percentage, and subindex. Among them, 198 of the quantitative trait loci were detected by multiple environmental stability, and 155 were the first reports. These quantitative trait loci consist of 37 clusters and 59 pairs of clusters. Among the 5 pairs of traits with positive correlation, 92.8% had the same direction of cluster additive effect in the genetic locus of 92.8% quantitative traits. There was a negative correlation between the yield of 6 quantitative trait loci and the additive effect of quality. Further, in natural populations, the genetic effect of cluster qClu-chr13-2 of quantitative trait loci obtained from this study was verified, which is of great significance for improving cotton fiber quality and yield.