ABSTRACT

An extensive selection of cotton accessions (G. hirsutum L) from Uzbek cotton germplasm resources with genetic diversity has been carried out. A total of 1086 G. hirsutum accessions, including 228 wild G. hirsutum races (ssp. palmeri, ssp. richmondi, ssp. morilli, ssp. mexicanum, ssp. latifolium, ssp. malum, ssp. yucatanense, ssp. punctatum, ssp. purpurascens and ect.), and 858 G. hirsutum accessions belonging to ssp. euhirsutum (according to Mauer) that represent a wide range of ecological niche such as Central Asian, Asian, European, American, African Mexican, and Australian ecotypes have been selected. 724 accessions out of 1086 selected were grown and phenotipically evaluated in greenhouse and field stations of the Institute of Genetics and Plants Experimental Biology (IG&PEB) in 2003. Morphobiological diversity within these evaluated cotton accessions has been discussed. Moreover, cataloguing of these selected cotton accessions according to international plant cataloguing standards are in progress that describes each accession in detail. Furthermore, these selected accessions will be used to tag new potential genes for fiber quality and agronomic traits using linkage-disequilibrium (LD) mapping technology.