The Structure of Upland Cotton (G. hirsutum L.) Genetic Diversity As Revealed by SSRs.

Establishing genetic diversity of cultivars is essential for germplasm enhancement and genomic analysis in crop improvement programs.   The objective of this study was to characterize genetic relationships of upland cotton cultivars, representing breeding programs from across the U.S. cotton belt. Genotyping was done with SSR markers using high-resolution capillary-based SSR genotyping. SSR marker sequences were obtained from Cotton Marker Database and a minimum of four markers per chromosome were selected for genotyping. The structure of genetic diversity of upland cultivars in the form of phylogenetic tree and the genetic relationships of the cotton cultivars using marker data will be presented.