Early-stage screening for heat tolerance in cotton

WOS: 000368810000011The study aimed to identify early-stage traits of cotton for heat tolerance using multitrait approach reflecting field yield performance. Seedling growth and physiological response of 16 cultivars to high temperature were investigated at three different developmental stages and four heat stress conditions in a climate chamber. Some traits such as hypocotyl dry weight, leaf pigment contents and cellular respiration were significantly correlated with previously known yield of ten cultivars grown in the hot field conditions. Sixteen cotton cultivars were classified for their heat tolerance by principle component analysis (PCA) using yield-correlated physiological traits. As a result, we showed that heat tolerance classification of cultivars based on PCA significantly coincided with the yield results of cultivars grown in hot field. As a conclusion, yield-correlated physiological traits determined in the study may facilitate selection of heat-tolerant cotton genotypes at early stage. In addition, yield-correlated early-stage traits can be used in phenotyping for QTL and association mapping studies to develop selection markers for heat tolerance.Scientific and Technological Research Council of Turkey (TUBITAK) [110O228]The authors gratefully acknowledge the financial support from Scientific and Technological Research Council of Turkey (TUBITAK), Project No. 110O228. Gratitude is extended to Dr. Zahide Neslihan Ozturk, Prof. Sedat Serce, Dr. Mustafa Ozden and Dr. Allah Bakhsh for critical reading of the manuscript, excellent suggestions and scientific discussing during writing the manuscript. We also thank Mehmet Vedat Ipek and Orhan Gazi Kaya for technical assistance during laboratory experiments