Gossypium hirsutum cultivar:PSC355 Genome sequencing

Reniform and root-knot nematodes are two of the most destructive pests of conventional upland cotton, Gossypium hirsutum, L. and continue to be a major threat to cotton fiber production in semi-arid regions of the southern United States and Central America. Fortunately, natural tolerance to these nematodes has been identified in Pima cotton varieties (G. barbadense) and several upland varieties (G. hirsutum), which has led to a robust breeding program that has successfully introgressed and stacked these independent resistant traits into several Upland cotton lines with superior agronomic traits, e.g. BAR 32-30 and BARBREN-713. Phytogen 355 served as a backcross recurrent parent. Its genome sequence will enable new avenues of research in to nematode tolerant and resistant varieties of cotton.