Molecular tagging of a major QTL for fiber strength in Upland cotton and its marker-assisted selection

Fiber is a basic raw material in the textile industry. The changes in spinning technology have in common the requirement of unique and often greater cotton fiber quality, especially strength, for processing. We used a Gossypium anomalum introgression line, 7235, characterized by good fiber quality properties, to identify molecular markers linked to fiber-strength QTLs. By the use of F2 and F3 populations derived from a cross between 7235 and TM-1, a genetic standard of Upland cotton, nine molecular markers, three SSRs and six RAPDs, were identified to be linked to two QTLs for fiber strength. One was a major QTL, QTLFS1, detected both in Nanjing and Hainan, China, and the Texas College Station, USA. It was found to be associated with eight markers and explained more than 30% of the phenotypic variation. QTLFS1 was mapped to chromosome 10. The major QTL in 7235 was identified to be transferred from an Acala 3080 cotton. The marker-assisted selection revealed that DNA markers linked to this QTL could be used in increasing the fiber strength of commercial cultivars.