Sequencing and Utilization of the Gossypium Genomes
Andrew H. Paterson, Jun-kang Rong, Alan R. Gingle, Peng W. Chee, Elizabeth S. Dennis, Danny Llewellyn, Leon S. Dure III, Candace Haigler, Gerald O. Myers, Daniel G. Peterson, Mehboob ur Rahman, Yusuf Zafar, Umesh Reddy, Yehoshua Saranga, James M. Stewart, Joshua A. Udall , Vijay N. Waghmare, Jonathan F. Wendel, Thea A. Wilkins, Robert J. Wright, Essam Zaki, Elsayed E. Hafez and Jun Zhu 2010.
Tropical Plant Biol. (2010) 3:71–74.
Revealing the genetic underpinnings of cotton productivity will require understanding both the prehistoric evolution of spinnable fibers, and the results of independent domestication processes in both the Old and New Worlds. Progress toward a reference sequence for the smallest Gossypium genome is a logical stepping-stone toward revealing diversity in the remaining seven genomes (A, B, C, E, F, G, K) that permitted Gossypium species to adapt to a wide range of ecosystems in warmer arid regions of the world, and toward identifying the emergent properties that account for the superior productivity and quality of tetraploid cottons. The greatest challenge facing the cotton community is not genome sequencing per se but the conversion of sequence to knowledge.