The Genetic Structure of US Upland Cotton Germplasm.

A collection of 375 accessions of upland cottons representing all the major cotton breeding programs were selected and currently genotyped using highly polymorphic SSR markers. Genetic structure of the US upland cotton germplasm will be determined to develop upland cotton diversity panel.  These cultivars/lines will be used to develop a robust association mapping panel in cotton with the goal to leverage the quantitative genetic variation for improving cotton productivity. Results on genotyping the core collection and developing diversity panel in upland cotton will be presented.