Abstract
Drought is one of the main abiotic stresses that seriously influences cotton production. Many indicators can be used to evaluate cotton drought tolerance, but the key indicators remain to be determined. The objective of this study was to identify effective cotton drought tolerance indicators from 19 indices, including morphology, photosynthesis, physiology, and yield-related indices, and to evaluate the yield potential of 104 cotton varieties under both normal and drought-stress field conditions. Combined with principal component analysis (PCA) and a regression analysis method, the results showed that the top five PCs among the 19, with eigenvalues > 1, contributed 65.52, 63.59, and 65.90% of the total variability during 2016 to 2018, respectively, which included plant height (PH), effective fruit branch number (EFBN), single boll weight (SBW), transpiration rate (Tr) and chlorophyll (Chl). Therefore, the indicator dimension decreased from 19 to 5. A comparison of the 19 indicators with the 5 identified indicators through PCA and a combined regression analysis found that the results of the final cluster of drought tolerance on 104 cotton varieties were basically consistent. The results indicated that these five traits could be used in combination to screen cotton varieties or lines for drought tolerance in cotton breeding programs, and Zhong R2016 and Xin lu zao 45 exhibited high drought tolerance and can be selected as superior parents for good yield performance under drought stress.
Highlights
Xinjiang is located in Northwest China and belongs to arid and semiarid areas with high evaporation and a general shortage of freshwater resources
To analyze the drought effects of different cotton materials, we investigated 19 drought tolerance-related indicators of morphology, photosynthesis, physiology and yield characteristics under cotton drought stress conditions in three consecutive planting cycles
The results showed that under drought stress, the averages of all 19 traits decreased (Table 2)
Summary
Xinjiang is located in Northwest China and belongs to arid and semiarid areas with high evaporation and a general shortage of freshwater resources. Cotton is the main economic crop in Xinjiang and accounts for more than one-third of the total agricultural area in the region (Wang et al, 2004; Kang et al, 2012). The cotton planting area in Xinjiang accounts for 70% of the national planting area, and the total output accounts for 84% of the national total (source: National Bureau of Statistics). Screening of Key Drought Resistance Indices in cotton production (Ullah et al, 2017). Obtaining and breeding new varieties with high yield and strong drought resistance are currently the main breeding targets (Cattivelli et al, 2008)
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