By HudsonAlpha Institute for Biotechnology
Plant genomics researchers at Huntsville’s HudsonAlpha Institute for Biotechnology announced the surprising results of a cotton sequencing study led by Jane Grimwood and Jeremy Schmutz, who co-direct the HudsonAlpha Genome Sequencing Center (HGSC). The goal of the project was to identify differences among wild and domesticated cotton that could be used to bring back traits like resistance to disease or drought. The results led researchers to unexpected conclusions, as described in their paper in Nature Genetics.
“The importance of this study is that it helps us understand more about cotton fiber development,” said Grimwood, who is a faculty investigator at HudsonAlpha. “But perhaps more importantly, it reinforces the surprising concept that wild and domesticated cotton is remarkably similar, leading us to the conclusion that we will need to work on other approaches to generate diversity for cotton species.”
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