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ARS Home » Plains Area » College Station, Texas » Southern Plains Agricultural Research Center » Crop Germplasm Research » Research » Publications at this Location » Publication #384909
Research Project: Cotton Genetic Resource Management and Genetic Improvement

Location: Crop Germplasm Research

Title: Intra-plant variability in Gossypium hirsutum L. for heat tolerance related attributes

Author
item UR REHMAN, ANEEQ - University Of Agriculture - Pakistan
item MAJEED, SAJID - University Of Agriculture - Pakistan
item CHAUDHARY, MUHAMMAD TANEES - University Of Agriculture - Pakistan
item RANA, IQRAR AHMAD - University Of Agriculture - Pakistan
item DU, XIONGMING - Chinese Academy Of Agricultural Sciences
item Hinze, Lori
item AZHAR, MUHAMMAD TEHSEE - Bahauddin Zakariya University

Submitted to: Agronomy
Publication Type: Peer Reviewed Journal
Publication Acceptance Date: 11/19/2021
Publication Date: 11/23/2021
Citation: Ur Rehman, A., Majeed, S., Chaudhary, M., Rana, I., Du, X., Hinze, L.L., Azhar, M. 2021. Intra-plant variability in Gossypium hirsutum L. for heat tolerance related attributes. Agronomy. 11(12). Article 2375. https://doi.org/10.3390/agronomy11122375.
DOI: https://doi.org/10.3390/agronomy11122375

Interpretive Summary: Cotton plants are sensitive to environmental stresses, and these stresses can affect cotton yields. High temperatures during flowering adversely affect reproductive mechanisms including pollen germination and viability. Physiological and morphological traits were measured for two flowering positions in 13 cultivars of Upland cotton. All traits indicated that cotton pollination was superior in flowers that were found under the canopy of the plant as compared to flowers that were directly exposed to sunlight. Cotton cultivars were diverse in their responses to heat stress, indicating there is genetic variability to use in plant breeding to maximize cotton's tolerance of heat stress. A better understanding of the traits underlying this inter-plant variation will allow for development of improved varieties able to withstand heat stress in flowers exposed to sunlight.

Technical Abstract: Within plant variability in response to abiotic stress can contribute to cotton yield losses. Physiological and morphological traits related to heat stress were observed for two flowering positions in 13 accessions of Upland cotton. These accessions were sown in field conditions in triplicate by following randomized complete block design. The data were collected for pollen germination, pollen viability, cell membrane thermostability, chlorophyll contents, boll weight and boll retention for both top and bottom branches of each genotype. The collected data were analyzed for the identification of variability within and between genotypes for these two flowering positions. Tukey's test was applied to estimate the significance of distribution between traits. Results showed that the two positions within the same plant were significantly varied from each other for all the parameters except boll weight. The genotype AA-933 performed best for pollen germination and boll retention, while CYTO-608 exhibited maximum pollen viability in both bottom and top flowers. Overall, MNH-1016 and CIM-602 showed better cell membrane thermostability and chlorophyll contents, respectively. This inter-plant variability can be further exploited in breeding programs to enhance the stress tolerance capabilities of the varieties.