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ARS Home » Southeast Area » Stoneville, Mississippi » Crop Genetics Research » Research » Publications at this Location » Publication #371861
Research Project: Utilizing Conventional and Molecular Approaches to Enhance Seed and Fiber Quality Traits, and Conducting a National Cotton Variety Testing Program

Location: Crop Genetics Research

Title: Potential of genetic improvement for neppiness traits in Upland cotton

Author
item Zeng, Linghe
item Bechere, Efrem
item Delhom, Christopher

Submitted to: Crop Science
Publication Type: Peer Reviewed Journal
Publication Acceptance Date: 3/24/2020
Publication Date: 6/8/2020
Citation: Zeng, L., Bechere, E., Delhom, C.D. 2020. Potential of genetic improvement for neppiness traits in Upland cotton. Crop Science. 60:1876-1883. https://doi.org/10.1002/csc2.20168.
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1002/csc2.20168

Interpretive Summary: Cotton fiber neps and seed coat neps are impurities in cotton raw fibers that reduce yarn quality and eventually lower dye quality and cause flecks in cotton fabrics. It is unknown how these traits will respond to selections in cotton breeding for reducing these impurity contents in raw fibers. In this research, we developed two breeding populations derived from Upland cotton cultivars with diverse values of neps. We selected progenies from these populations that had lower impurities and evaluated them in the subsequent generations from 2012 to 2018, choosing plants with the lowest impurities each generation. The selections successfully lowered fiber neps and seed coat neps of cotton fibers in the resulting plants. Results also showed that yield and fiber neps can be simultaneously improved in breeding. This study provided evidence for the first time that fiber neps and seed coat neps can be genetically improved and there is no yield penalty in breeding for lowering these impurities in Upland cotton cultivars. The selected cotton plants with lowered impurities will be eventually developed into new cotton cultivars to benefit cotton growers with better fiber quality and higher yield.

Technical Abstract: Previous analysis of relationships of neppiness traits with lint yield and other fiber properties in Upland cotton (Gossypium hirsutum L.) were mainly based on phenotypes. The potential of genetic improvement in neppiness traits as well as their genetic relationships with lint yield and other fiber properties in breeding selections is unknown. In this study, realized heritability of neppiness traits, and correlated selection responses (CR) and realized genetic correlations (GR) between neppiness traits and lint yield and other fiber properties were analyzed in two breeding populations, FiberMax832 × SP205 and MD15 × JJ1145ne, in F3, F4, and F5 generations. The realized heritability was identified low to moderate for fiber nep size, fiber nep count, seed coat nep (SCN) size, and SCN count ranging from 0.00 to 0.52 and from 0.12 to 0.58 at selection intensities of 10% and 20%, respectively. The realized heritability of fiber nep count was higher ranging from 0.44 to 0.52 and from 0.20 to 0.58 at selection intensities of 10% and 20%, respectively. At the 20% selection intensity, there were no unfavorable CR between lint yield and neppiness traits. Selections for fewer fiber nep count consistently increased fineness values (unfavorable) and decreased immature fiber content (IFC) values (favorable) in the two populations. Realized GR between fiber nep count and fineness was high, 0.80-0.84 in the two populations. The GR between fiber nep count and IFC was moderate, 0.50-0.64 in the two populations. The results in this study suggest the possibility of simultaneous genetic improvement of fiber nep count with lint yield and IFC, but also the difficulty of simultaneous genetic improvement for fiber nep count and fineness.