New breakthrough in cotton genome research

According to the latest news from the Chinese Academy of Agricultural Sciences, two studies of Asian cotton and upland cotton carried out by a number of scientific research institutions in the United Nations Institute of Cotton Research revealed the evolution history of Asian cotton in China, and constructed a complete cotton A genome variation map; The genetic diversity and population structure of cotton were systematically analyzed, and a large number of major QTL loci closely related to their fiber length and strength were identified. Two results were simultaneously published online in Nature Genetics.

The “Basic Research on Genetic Diversity and Evolution of Asian Cotton” undertaken by the Li Fuguang team of Cotton Institute, through the re-sequencing of 243 diploid cotton germplasm materials, comparing the differentiation degree between different ecotype groups, identified a total 163 genetic differentiation intervals revealed the effects of artificial selection and ecological geography on the genome. Through clustering and domestication related trait analysis, it was revealed that China's Asian cotton may originate from South China and gradually spread from south to north to the Yangtze and Yellow River basins. The key mutation sites that determine the disease resistance of Asian cotton were found to lay an important genetic basis for introducing the excellent stress resistance of diploid cotton into widely planted tetraploid cotton.

Based on the Du Xingming team of the cotton plant, the "genomic variation of the core germplasm of the upland cotton and its key sites affecting fiber quality and yield", the first use of 419 terrestrial cotton core germplasms in China to explore about 3.66 million SNP markers, complete Collecting 13 fiber traits in 12 environments, using association analysis to explore a large number of important trait-related loci and genes, and functional verification of key candidate genes, systematically carrying out fiber yield, quality, growth period and other traits. Genome-wide association analysis (GWAS) provides more accurate markers and genetic resources for directional breeding of cotton importance, and has leapt to the international ranks in this research.