Genetic Variation in Fiber Quality
O. Lloyd May
Abstract
Historical records suggest that cotton textile products have existed for over two and one-half millennia (Ramey, 1980). Improvement of cotton fiber quality to enhance its use as a textile fiber began when ancient peoples domesticated cotton, altering it from a wild, photoperiodic, short-staple, low-yielding plant into one that produces more and longer lint and is adapted to extratropical latitudes (Fryxell, 1979). With the advent of nonsubjective fiber quality evaluations, knowledge of how fiber properties contribute to textile performance, and expressed needs by textile manufacturers for improved fiber quality, breeders began to emphasize fiber quality in their genetic improvement programs. Breeders are charged also with simultaneously improving lint yield and traits such as plant type and host resistance to insects and pathogens. Applied breeders probably would generally not emphasize improvement of fiber quality ahead of lint yield in a list of priorities. The complexity of these issues is such, however, that this chapter will focus on the genetics of fiber quality for Upland (Gossypium hirsutum L.) cotton. Consideration will be given also to the future as textile industry priorities for cotton fiber properties change to reflect the requirements of more efficient yarn-spinning and fabric-manufacturing technologies.