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Growers and consultants have been presented new technologies and new varieties at a pace that has previously been unprecidented. Some of the new varieties have the majority of their test data collected during the past three years. Six varieties that have been common in tests between 1994 and 2000 demonstrate that fiber length has been particularly short in these same varieties during the past three years compared to previous years. Fiber strength during the past three years has trended down, while micronaire was very high in 1998 and 1999. Balanced head to head data previously reported demonstrates transgenic varieties had equivalent fiber quality to their recurrent parent. The rate at which technology has been adopted has resulted in more varieties with technology replacing the parent varieties in recent years. For new varieties inftroduced in the last 3 years, length, strength, and micronaire would not be percieved as being equal to their parents which were primarily tested prior to the last three years. This observation raised questions regarding the stability of these new varieties. A statistical proceedure was used to compare the individual variety performance to the mean of all varieties at a location (a particular environment). An estimate of stability is possible as individual variety response is compared to the mean of all varieties at a test location across many environments. Five families of Deltapine brand varieties (DP 20, DP 50, DP 51, DP 5415, and DP 5690) were compared to their technology versions (Bollgard, Roundup Ready, and stacked) across hundreds of environments (regions and years). Stability measures for 25 individual Delta and Pine Land Company varieties are presented. As expected individual varieties show some variation in fiber quality, and in responsiveness across diverse environments. For the five families of varieties, technology versions were practically identical to their parents. These data strongly indicate no difference in fiber quality stability of transgenic varieties when compared directly against their recurrent parents across environments that produced everything from inferior to superior fiber quality. |
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©National Cotton Council, Memphis TN |
Document last modified XXXXXX, XXX XX 2001
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