Skip to main content
ARS Home » Southeast Area » New Orleans, Louisiana » Southern Regional Research Center » Cotton Fiber Bioscience Research » Research » Publications at this Location » Publication #361917
Research Project: Molecular Characterization and Phenotypic Assessments of Cotton Fiber Quality Traits

Location: Cotton Fiber Bioscience Research

Title: Gossypium barbadense and Gossypium hirsutum genomes provide insights into the origin and evolution of allotetraploid cotton

Author
item HU, Y - Zhejiang University
item CHEN, J.D. - Zhejiang University
item FANG, L. - Zhejiang University
item ZHANG, Z.Y. - Zhejiang University
item MA, W. - Zhejiang University
item NIU, Y. - Zhejiang University
item JU, R. - Nanjing Agricultural University
item ZHAO, T. - Nanjing Agricultural University
item Fang, David
item ZHANG, T.Z. - Zhejiang University
item LIAN, J. - Zhejiang University
item BARUCH, K. - Nrgene
item LIU, X. - Esquel Group
item RUAN, Y. - University Of Newcastle

Submitted to: Nature Genetics
Publication Type: Peer Reviewed Journal
Publication Acceptance Date: 2/11/2019
Publication Date: 3/18/2019
Citation: Hu, Y., Chen, J., Fang, L., Zhang, Z., Ma, W., Niu, Y., Ju, R., Zhao, T., Fang, D.D., Zhang, T., Lian, J., Baruch, K., Liu, X., Ruan, Y. 2019. Gossypium barbadense and Gossypium hirsutum genomes provide insights into the origin and evolution of allotetraploid cotton. Nature Genetics. 51:739-748. https://doi.org/10.1038/s41588-019-0371-5.
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/s41588-019-0371-5

Interpretive Summary: Cotton is economically the most important global natural fiber producing crop. Cotton plants were rigorously domesticated by converting perennial trees into annual staple fiber crop in order to suit for a productive agricultural crop. American upland cotton, Gossypium hirsutum, produces higher fiber yield, thrive better in harsh environments than that of Sealand or Egyptian cotton, G. barbadense, which produces better fiber quality. The global genetic and molecular basis for these inter-species differences remains obscure. Here, we report significantly improved de novo assembly and annotation of genomes of these two cultivated cottons. The analyses uncovered the evolutionary and genomic features associated with the species-specific differences between them for fiber quality and stress tolerance. These two most complete de novo assembled genomes set firm foundation for investigating deep insights into cotton genome evolution and domestication history and also aiming to exploit the genetic diversity for further improving resilience to changing climate and fiber production to address future challenges.

Technical Abstract: Cotton is economically the most important global natural fiber producing crop. After polyploidization, cotton domestication was primarily accomplished by converting perennial trees into annual staple fiber crop. Gossypium hirsutum evolved to produce a higher fiber yield, thrive better in harsh environments than that of G. barbadense which produced better fiber quality. The global genetic and molecular basis for these inter-species differences remains obscure. Here, we report significantly improved de novo assembly and annotation of genomes of the two cultivated allotetraploid cottons. The analyses uncovered the evolutionary and genomic features associated with the species-specific differences between G. hirsutum and G. barbadense for fiber quality and stress tolerance. These two most complete de novo assembled genomes set firm foundation for investigating deep insights into cotton genome evolution and domestication history and also aiming to exploit the genetic diversity for further improving resilience to changing climate and fiber production to address future challenges.