Biotech Updates

Cotton's Global Genetic Resources

July 16, 2010

An article published in the July/August 2010 edition of the Crop Science Society of America reports the global cotton genetic resources. The effort to put together a comprehensive collection of cotton germplasm information was initiated at the International Cotton Genome Initiative Research Conference in Anyang, China in 2008. The main aim was to build strong, multinational collaboration for conservation and characterization of cotton collection at different germplasm centers in the world. Cotton scientists from Australia, Brazil, China, France, India, Russia, United States and Uzbekistan provided information on the cotton genetic resources preserved in their countries.

The report states that cotton production relies primarily on only two species, 48 other species which are catalogued in various seed collections were poorly characterized and under-utilized in cotton breeding efforts. In addition, there are four wild species not conserved or maintained within any of the eight collections. Accessions of  wild cottonspecies were also not conserved which needs immediate attention.

The full article can be viewed at https://www.crops.org/news-media/releases/2010/0712/380/