Examining the relationship between agronomic performance and fiber quality in ten cotton breeding populations

Abstract

AbstractFuture cotton production systems need improved fiber quality to meet global market demands and provide the textile industry with high‐quality fiber. To achieve this, cotton (Gossypium hirsutum L.) breeding programs must develop cultivars that overcome the negative relationship between agronomic performance and fiber quality. Since 1935, the USDA‐ARS Pee Dee germplasm enhancement program has prioritized improving fiber quality while also maintaining or enhancing agronomic performance. Along with a number of other breeding programs, the Pee Dee program documented that the negative relationship between agronomic performance and fiber quality is most often caused by genetic linkage. Several of these breeding programs have demonstrated that the negative genetic linkage can be overcome. In this study, we test the hypothesis that three Pee Dee germplasm lines previously identified as rare recombinants can generate populations with a decreased negative relationship between agronomic performance and fiber quality. The results suggest that two of the three Pee Dee germplasm lines generate populations with a decreased negative relationship and presumably transmit beneficial allelic combinations for lint percent and fiber quality traits in coupling phase linkage with one another or fixed in offspring.