See discussions, stats, and author profiles for this publication at: https://www.researchgate.

net/publication/226800848

Cotton: An Introduction

Chapter · January 1970

DOI: 10.1007/978-3-642-04796-1_1

CITATIONS READS

14 6,952

3 authors, including:

B. M. Khadi Santhy Venoor

University of Agricultural Sciences, Dharwad Central Institute for Cotton Research
89 PUBLICATIONS   582 CITATIONS    12 PUBLICATIONS   51 CITATIONS   

SEE PROFILE SEE PROFILE

Some of the authors of this publication are also working on these related projects:

Development of organic cultivation practices of sugarcane View project

All content following this page was uploaded by B. M. Khadi on 27 March 2015.

The user has requested enhancement of the downloaded file.

Chapter 1
Cotton: An Introduction

B.M. Khadi, V. Santhy, and M.S. Yadav

1.1 Introduction

Cotton is currently the leading plant fibre crop worldwide and is grown commer-
cially in the temperate and tropical regions of more than 50 countries (Smith
1999), with a total coverage of 34 million ha. The cotton seed coat extends into
tubular fibre and is spun into yarn. Specific areas of production include countries
such as USA, India, China, the Middle East and Australia, where climatic con-
ditions suit the natural growth requirements of cotton, including periods of
hot and dry weather, and where adequate moisture is available, often obtained
through irrigation. Among the five major cotton growing countries, China holds
the highest productivity level (1,265 kg/ha), followed by USA (985 kg/ha),
Uzbekistan (831 kg/ha), Pakistan (599 kg/ha) and India (560 kg/ha) (Table 1.1).
India ranks first in terms of cultivated area, occupying over a quarter of the world
cotton area, followed by China, USA, and Pakistan. About 26.247 million metric
tons of cotton are produced globally, and the major countries contributing
the most are China, India, USA and Pakistan followed by Uzbekistan, Turkey,
Australia, Greece, Brazil and Egypt.
The cotton species recognized in the world are about 50, of which 4 are
cultivated. Two of these (Gossypium arboreum and G. herbaceum) are diploids,
and two (G. hirsutum and G. barbadense) are tetraploids. More than 80% of the
world’s cotton area is covered by tetraploids. However, diploid cottons are
cultivated in Asia and the Middle East. India is the only country where all the
cultivated species and some of their hybrid combinations are commercially grown.

B.M. Khadi
Dean (Post Graduate Studies), University of Agricultural Sciences, Dharwad-580005, Karnataka,
India
e-mail: bmkhadi@rediffmail.com
V. Santhy and M.S. Yadav
Central Institute for Cotton Research, Nagpur, Maharashtra, India

U.B. Zehr (ed.), Cotton, Biotechnology in Agriculture and Forestry 65, 1

DOI 10.1007/978-3-642-04796-1_1, # Springer-Verlag Berlin Heidelberg 2010
2 B.M. Khadi et al.

Table 1.1 Major cotton growing countries of the world (2007–2008)

Sl. No. Country Area (000 ha) Production Productivity (kg/ha)
(000 metric tonnes)
1 China (M) 6,385 8,078 1,265
2 USA 4,245 4,182 985
3 India 9,555 5,355 560
4 Pakistan 3,082 1,845 599
5 Uzbekistan 1,450 1,206 831
6 Turkey 520 675 1,298
7 Australia 63 126 2,000
8 Brazil 1,077 1,603 1,487
9 Egypt 246 224 909
10 Greece 300 285 950
11 Argentina 311 152 489
12 Others 6,129 2,516
World average 33,363 26,247 787
Source: Cotton: World Statistics, November 2008

The diversity of cotton cultivars and cotton agro climatic zones in India is larger
when compared to other major cotton growing countries in the world.

1.2 History and Taxonomy

The first reference to cotton is found in a Rig-Veda hymn, which was written about
the fifteenth century BC. The use of cotton in about 800 BC is recorded in Manu’s
“Dharmashastra”. The Sanskrit word karpasa,I, which is connected to kapas of
modern Hindustani, was used in ancient literature. The technological and agricul-
tural term in English, Cotton, which describes cultivated species of Gossypium,
comes from the Arabic word qutum or kutum (Brown and Ware 1958). Systematic
taxonomic study of cotton started with the description of Gossypium by Linnaeus in
1953.
The work of Sir George Watt entitled “The wild and cultivated cotton plants of
the world” provided a new dimension to the taxonomic studies. The cytological
studies of Zaitzev (1928) cited in the paper “A contribution to the classification of
genus Gossypium” was a landmark in cotton classification. Kohel (1973) has
addressed the description of genetic mutants based on the rules of the International
Committee on Genetic Symbols and Nomenclature.
Among the 50 species recognized in the dicotyledonous genus Gossypium,
belonging to family Malvaceae about 45 are diploids divided into three geographi-
cal groups and corresponding subgenera viz. Sturtia, Houzingenia and Gossypium,
five species are tetraploids included in one subgenus viz. Karpas (Fryxell 1984;
Wendel and Cronn 2003; Cronn and Wendel 2004) (Table 1.2).
The diploid species with 26 chromosomes are placed in eight cytogenetic
genome groups designated A–G and K and tetraploids with 52 chromosomes in
Table 1.2 Classification of Genus Gossypium
Primary distribution No. of species Subgenus Section Subsections Examples of species
1 Cotton: An Introduction

Africa (Africa and Arabian 14 Gossypium Gossypium Gossypium Asiatic diploids

peninsula) Pseudopambak Anamola G. anomalum
Pseudopambak G. stocksii
Longibola G. longicalyx
Australia (NW Kimberly 17 (16 taxonomically Sturtia Sturtia G. sturtianum
region) described) Grandi calys G. costulatum
Hibiscoidea G. australe
America (West Mexico 14 (13 taxonomically Houzingenia Houzingenia Houzingenia G. thurberi
Galapagos islands and described) Integrifolia G. davidsonii
Peru) Caducibractealaa G. harknessii
Erioxylum Erioxylum G. aridum
Selera G. gossypioides
Astromericana G. raimondii
American Pacific 5 Karpas – – All tetraploid species
including New World cultivar
3
4 B.M. Khadi et al.

one group designated AD (Endrizzi et al. 1985; Fryxell 1992; Stewart 1995;
Wendel and Cronn 2003) according to the genome affinities. The five allotetraploid
species are the united version of Old World A and New World D genome in A
genome cytoplasm (Skovsted 1937; Brubaker et al. 1999a) (Table 1.3).

Table 1.3 Gossypium species grouped according to germplasm pool

Pool Species Genome Seed Notes
Primary G. hirsutum AD1 + Current and obsolete cultivars, breeding
stocks, land races, referral and wild
accessions
G. barbadense AD2 + Current and obsolete cultivars, breeding
stocks, land races, referral and wild
accessions
G. tomentosum AD3 + Hawaiian Islands
G. mustelinum AD4 + NE Brazil
G. darwinii AD5 + Galapagos Islands
Secondary G. herbaceum A1 Cultivars, landraces of Africa and Asia minor,
one wild from Southern Africa
G. arboreum A2 + Cultivars, landraces from Asia minor, SE
Asia and China; some African
G. anomalum B1 + Two subspecies, Sahel and SW Africa
G. triphyllum B2 + SW Africa
G. capitis-viridis B3 + Cape Verde Islands
G. trifurcatum B?
NE Somalia
G. longicalyx F1 + Trailing shrub, Sudan, Uganda, Tanzania
G. thurberi D1 + Sonora Desert, North America
G. armourianum D2-1 + Baja California ( San Marcos Island)
G. harkenssii D2-2 + Central Baja California
G. davidsonii D3-d + Southern Baja California
G. klotzchianum D3-k + Galapagos Islands
G. aridum D4 + Arborescent, Pacific slopes of Mexico
G. raimondii D5 + Pacific slopes valleys of Peru
G. gossypioides D6 + Central Oaxaca, Mexico
G. lobatum D7 + Arborescent, Central Michoacan, Mexico,
West Central Mexico
G. tumerui D10 + NW Mexico, coastal
G. schwendimanii D11 + Arborescent, El Infiernillo Valley, SW
Mexico
Tertiary G. sturtianum C1 + Ornamental, Trans central Australia arid zone
G. robinsonii C2 + Western Australia
G. bickii G1 + Central Australia arid zone
G. australe G + Trans Australia, North arid zone
G. nelsonii G + Central Australia
G. costulatum K + North Kimberley (wet–dry tropical Western
Australia)
G. cunninghamii K + Northern NT, Australia
G. enthyle K + North Kimberley, WA
G. exgiuum K + Prostrate, North Kimberley, WA
G. nobile K + North Kimberley WA
G. pilosum K + Terailing, Nort Kimberley, WA
G. populifolium K + North Kimberley, WA
(continued)
 1 Cotton: An Introduction 5

Table 1.3 (continued)

Pool Species Genome Seed Notes
G. pulchellum K + North Kimberley, WA
G. rotundifolium K + Prostrate, North Kimberley, WA
G. sp. nov. K + North Kimberley, WA
G. stocksii E1 + Arabian Peninsula and Horn of Africa
G. somalense E2 + Horn of Africa to Chad
G. areysianum E3 + Yemen
G. incanum E4 + Yemen
G. benadirense E
Ethiopia, Somalia, Kenya
G. bricchettii E
Somalia
G. vollesenii E
Somalia

1.3 Origin and Distribution

DNA-sequence phylogenetic data suggest that 6–7 million years ago, following a
trans-oceanic dispersal event, a D genome diverged from the African lineage that
eventually gave rise to the A genome, and became a separate lineage in the
Americas (primarily Mexico) (Senchina et al. 2003; Wendel and Cronn 2003;
Cronn and Wendel 2004). From another long-distance dispersal event 1–2 million
years ago, a tetraploid originated through hybridization of an African plant of
the A-genome group, perhaps most closely related to the present-day species
G. herbaceum, with a resident plant of the D-genome group, most closely related
to the present-day species G. raimondii (Wendel et al. 1992; Senchina et al. 2003;
Wendel and Cronn 2003; Kebede et al. 2007). The nascent disomic AD allotetra-
ploid from that single polyploidisation event evolved into the five present-day
tetraploid species (Endrizzi 1962). Comparative RFLP mapping was used to con-
struct genetic maps for the allotetraploids (AD genome n ¼ 26) and diploids (A &
D genome n ¼ 13) (Brubaker et al. 1999b). The study showed that allotetraploid A
and D genomes and A & D diploid genomes are recombinationally equivalent
despite nearly two fold difference in physical size. Polypoidisation in Gossypium is
associated with enhanced recombination as genetic lengths for allotetraploid gen-
omes are over 50% greater than those of their diploid counterparts. The concept of
organismal and genome relationships of diploid and allopolyploid taxa in the genus
Gossypium have been given in Fig. 1.1.
Gossypium raimondii, a rare species of northwestern Peru, is considered to be
the diploid with the genome that has retained the most similarity to this ancestral
D-genome species (Guo et al. 2007). It is one of the more recently evolved of the
DD species, having diverged in isolation as a result of a long-distance dispersal
event from Mexico (Wendel and Cronn 2003; Alvarez et al. 2005).
Soon after separation of the D-genome lineage, African Gossypium further
diverged with a long distance dispersal event resulting in establishment of an
Australian lineage (which evolved into the three genome groups C, G and K). The
lineage in Africa evolved further into four genome groups, first with divergence of

View publication stats