Genetic effects of nine Gossypium barbadense L. chromosome substitution lines in top crosses with five elite Upland cotton G. hirsutum L. cultivars

Crosses between Gossypium barbadense L and Gossypium hirsutum L. (Upland cotton) have produced limited success in introgressing fiber quality genes into the latter. Chromosome substitution lines (CSBL) have complete chromosomes or chromosome arms from G. barbadense , line 3-79, substituted for the corresponding chromosome or arms in G. hirsutum in a near isogenic background of TM-1. We top crossed nine CSBL and their parents (TM-1 and 3-79) with five cultivars. Parental lines and their F 2 populations were evaluated in four environments for agronomic and fiber quality traits. The CSBL and their F 2 hybrids showed wide ranges for both agronomic and fiber traits of economic importance. Genetic analysis showed that additive variances were larger than dominance variances for lint percentage, boll weight, lint yield, fiber length, strength, elongation, micronaire, and yellowness; whereas, dominance variances were larger than additive variances only for uniformity of fiber length and equal for fiber reflectance. For all traits, except boll weight and lint yield, significant additive effects of one or more chromosomes from 3-79 in TM-1 background were greater than the corresponding TM-1 chromosome. In addition, we identified specific chromosomes from G. barbadense (3-79) that carry alleles for improvements in specific fiber quality traits in Upland cotton. Favorable additive effects of individual chromosomes or chromosome segments from 3-79 relative to corresponding chromosomes or chromosomes segments from TM-1 were identified in this study as follows: Lint percentage, chromosome/arms 10, 16-15; longer fibers, chromosome/arms 01, 11sh, 26Lo; more uniform fibers, chromosomes/arms 01, 11sh, 10, 17-11; stronger fibers, chromosome/arms 01, 11sh, 12sh, 26Lo, 17-11; fiber elongation, chromosomes/arms 01, 11sh, 26Lo, 10, 17-11; reduced fiber micronaire, chromosome/arms 01, 12sh, 4-15, 16-15, 17-11; fibers with more reflectance, chromosome/arms 10, 4-15, 16-15, 17-11; fiber with less yellowness, chromosome arms 4-15, 17-11. Based on the present study, we concluded that by using CSBL, favorable fiber quality alleles can be introgressed into Upland cotton, thus greatly improving the breeder’s ability for improvement of Upland cotton for a variety of traits. These data should provide useful genetic information to the cotton breeding industry at large.