**10. Conclusion**

**9. Future perspectives**

132 World Cotton Germplasm Resources

extensively to create new genetic variation.

cotton gene bank could yield additional valuable alleles.

In India, there is a large scope for cotton genetic improvement for value added traits: an example is cotton for floor coverings. Currently, cotton contributes less than 2% of the fibres used in floor coverings, although this industry represents the largest single end-user of fibres in today's market. What is needed to fulfill this niche in the marketplace is to develop cotton fibres that have (1) more flame resistance to meet strict government standards (2) longer with reduced short fibre content to prevent shredding and (3) improved resiliency. It is also imperative to genetically improve the cotton fibre properties for other value added properties such as improved white brightness, increased postharvest properties such as moisture uptake, dye uptake, binding and/or retention and introduction of novel properties such as naturally

Physical and chemical mutagenesis provides a powerful alternative to natural, polygenic variation for identifying functional pathways and complex disease genes and more impor‐ tantly to generate novel cultivars with improved agronomic traits. Though there were some attempts in India, by and large, physical and chemical mutagenesis has not been utilized

The utilization of available germplasm in the national cotton gene bank can be further enhanced by adding the most suitable genetic stocks that can be procured from various international sources. Such activity will be useful in the development of breeding lines by introgressing beneficial alleles from the wild species, races and derivatives. Although elite x elite crosses are typical of traditional plant breeding, interspecific crosses are rarely used in cotton breeding because of numerous barriers. The finding that the *G. hirsutum* allele is favourable at some loci and the *G. barbadense* allele at other loci shows that recombination of favourable alleles from each of these species may form novel genotypes than either of the parental species. Similarly, the genomic exploration of other accessions of these species or other wild tetraploid cottons (*G. tomentosum*, *G. darwinii*, and *G. mustelinum*), maintained at national

The most important agronomic traits such as biotic and abiotic stress tolerance, plant devel‐ opment and consumer quality aspects are genetically and physiologically complex. Moreover, because of the polyploid nature of cotton, breeding for such traits is time consuming and difficult. Further, the paucity of information about genes that control important traits and the need for more extensive usage of diverse germplasm hinder the genetic improvement of cotton. The rapidly expanding knowledge on gene function and the availability of whole genome structural features of cotton is expected to offer new perspectives to solve these complex problems and future cotton genetic improvement strategy should integrate such knowledge in the breeding program. Taking up of multi-population analyses (such as NAM, MAGIC, four-way cross, etc.) can unambiguously resolve several issues in QTL models and tests of

Currently, the transgenic approach is feasible to engineer traits that are controlled by one or a few major genes. However, it is not a panacea for all the problems. Quantitative traits like yield

epistatic interactions of QTL with the genetic background and environment.

coloured fibres and antimicrobial fibres for medical and pharmaceutical use.

Foregoing section highlighted there are many challenges faced by Indian cotton scientists in creating the next generation of designer cotton plants. Fundamental research is still needed to elucidate biochemical and signalling pathways, as well as acquiring a better understanding of the underlying mechanisms that regulate gene expression in cotton. Further, quick and reproducible protocols for rapid screening of germplasm for biotic and abiotic stress resistance, breeding for drought tolerance, naturally coloured cotton, breeding for cotton varieties that suitable for mechanization and exploiting the genetic potential of wild species require urgent attention.
