Application of the Cottonscope for determining fiber maturity and fineness of an upland cotton MAGIC population

Abstract

AbstractFineness and maturity are two cotton (Gossypium spp.) fiber properties that respectively estimate the fiber diameter and degree of internal fiber thickening. Cotton researchers have been searching for accurate and efficient ways of measuring them due to their important roles in lint yield, fiber quality, and downstream textile performance. The recent development of the Cottonscope has offered an improved way of quantitatively assessing fineness and maturity based on the tests with reference cotton materials composed of clean and homogenous fibers. However, cotton geneticists and breeders have not widely adopted the new technology, since it has not been tested with a genetic population consisting of a large number of fiber samples with high levels of variations within a sample and among replicates. Thus, we measured a multiparent advanced generation intercross (MAGIC) population using the Cottonscope in comparison with a conventional Advanced Fiber Information System (AFIS). Comparative analyses showed a correlation of the fineness values between AFIS and Cottonscope, but a discrepancy in the maturity ratio values between them. Extensive phenotypic analyses suggested that Cottonscope technology using snippets and a normalization with a fiber width might help improve the accuracy of maturity from various fiber samples of the MAGIC population. The information may help cotton scientists measuring and interpreting fiber maturity from experimental materials for genetic and genomic analyses.