Ļć½¶Ö±²„scientists help verify origin of cottonās domestication
Contact: Vanessa Beeson
STARKVILLE, Miss.āCotton is the worldās leading source of natural textile fiber, but much of its genetic history remains a mystery. Mississippi State scientists are part of an international team investigating when and where cotton was first domesticated. Their findings, , weave together a clearer picture of cottonās genomic past while offering insight to help improve the cropās future.
Researchers sequenced nearly 400 wild and domestic cotton plants across Florida, the Caribbean and Mexico. They traced modern cottonās roots to Mexicoās ³Ū³Ü³¦²¹³ŁĆ”²Ō Peninsula more than five millennia ago, uncovering genetic diversity that could help todayās breeders develop more resilient cotton.
Professor Dan Peterson, head of MSUās Department of Biochemistry, Nutrition and Health Promotion and a Mississippi Agricultural and Forestry Experiment Station scientist, said the team confirmed a longstanding hypothesis that the Northwestern ³Ū³Ü³¦²¹³ŁĆ”²Ō Peninsula was the center of domestication of Gossypium hirsutum, known as upland cotton. Peterson noted wild specimens of the species hold valuable reservoirs of traits that could improve the crop today.
āWhen breeders select plants for desirable traits, they create highly specialized cotton varieties but also reduce genetic diversity,ā he said. āAs diversity declines, so does the plantās ability to withstand new threats. Protective genes can be lost during breeding, leaving modern cotton vulnerable to emerging diseases. Thatās why wild cotton populations are vital. Their rich genetic diversity continues to evolve under natural environmental pressures, providing valuable traits for future breeding efforts.ā
Peterson said researchers have studied the origin of cottonās domestication for more than 75 years. Early scientists noticed much of cottonās diversity appeared to originate in the ³Ū³Ü³¦²¹³ŁĆ”²Ō, supported by closely related plant types and archaeological evidence of ancient people in the area using cotton.
āWeāre confirming and building upon what earlier researchers discovered through years of painstaking work,ā Peterson said.
Sequencing a genome, he said, is like solving a jigsaw puzzle.
āWe canāt read a chromosome from end to end. We must sequence then reassemble many DNA pieces. In the past, those pieces were very short, making the process incredibly complex. Recent advances allow us to sequence much longer DNA stretches,ā Peterson said. āItās the difference between solving a 100-piece puzzle compared to one with a million pieces.ā
Tony Arick, interim director of the Ļć½¶Ö±²„Institute for Genomics, Biocomputing and Biotechnology, said the modern process is easier and less expensive.
āThe longer the DNA string, the better and easier it is to map. Using the jigsaw puzzle analogy, itās much easier to see the big picture when there are fewer missing pieces,ā he said.
Iowa State Universityās Corrinne Grover and Jonathan Wendel served as co-principal investigators on the research. In addition to Peterson and Arick, Ļć½¶Ö±²„IGBB collaborators include Chuan-Yu Hsu, Zenaida V. Magbanua and Olga Pechanova. The Universidad Nacional AutĆ³noma de MĆ©xico, Universidad AutĆ³noma de ³Ū³Ü³¦²¹³ŁĆ”²Ō, University of NeuchĆ¢tel, U.S. Department of Agricultureās Agricultural Research Service and the Chinese Academy of Agricultural Sciences also contributed to the work. Ā Ā Ā
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