**2. Collection of cotton germplasm in China, exploration, exchange with other countries**

From last century, collection in homeland has gone through three stages of development. The first stage was the years before the 1949. Wang Shanquan and Feng Zhefang firstly started to collect the *G. arboreum* L., from thirteen provinces in the country including Jiangsu, Zhejiang, Liaoning, Shangdong (in 1922-1923) etc., and acquired 112 lines with diversity phenotypes [1]. Later, Central Agricultural Research Institute continued the work and collected 1200 *G. arboreum* L. But most of these lines were lost during World War Two. The second stage was the middle of the last century. In 1956-1957, the Ministry of Agriculture announced to support for collection of the landraces across the country assisted by the local government. Until 1961, almost 1007 cotton lines were received from all over the country, including 697 *G. hirsutum* L., 25 *G. barbadense* L., 256 *G. arboreum* L., one *G. herbaceum* L. and five wild cottons. Regular collection expeditions were also organized at this stage. The crop explorations have covered most of South-west China. In 1975, Xiang Xianlin, Ma Xijing and Wang Biying explored Luxi, Yinjiang, Longchuan, Jinghong, Mengla in South–west of Yunnan Province. In 1980, Xiang Xianlin explored Yaxian, Linshui, Baoting, Yuedong, Baisa, Danxian, Dongfang, Wenchang in Hainan province with the help of local government. In 1983, Xiang Xianlin, Zhang Zhujie, Yang Shiquan explored the south of Guizhou Prov‐ ince, and in the same time Liu Guoqiang and Shen Duanzhuang explored the north of Guangxi Province. In this stage, the agricultural institutes in the main provinces also kept their cultivars genetic stocks and sent to the long-term germplasm bank in Beijing after evaluation till 1995. The third stage was years after 2000. In 2002-2013, lines preserved in local agricultural institutes of Xianyang, Tangshan, Xiaoshan, Jiuquan, Bazhou, Binchuan, were sent to Institute of Cotton Research of Chinese Academy of Agricultural Sciences for long-term preservation. Explorations of landrace cotton were also carried out in this stage. Profs. Wang Kunbo and Du Xiongming organized the explorations in Yunan, Guizhou, Guangxi Province separately from 2002 to 2013 (Table 1).


**Years Locations Acquirement Explorer and institute**

243 wild species and Landraces, including race *punctatum*, race mexicanum, race *richmondii*, race *latifolium*, race *morilli*, race *mariegalante*, race *parmeri*

20 *G. tomentosum* Nuttall ex Seemann

Collections obtained from foreign countries are showed in Table 2 and Table 3. The earlier introduction of germplasm of Upland cotton were Deltapine lines imported from USA which were the main varieties grown in China in 1950s [15-17]. Following, Acala and Stonville lines were also introduced to China which helped to enhance new cultivars by the native breeders based on these materials. From 1980 to 1997, Ma Jiazhang, Xiang Shikang, and Liu Guoqiang imported genetic stocks, PD lines and *G.barbadense* separately. The Soviet Union was also one of the countries that provided their varieties and lines including the early mature and resistant Upland cottons, short branch Sea island cottons and various hybrid lines. Recently, many accessions were exchanged between China and other countries, including Russia and Uzbe‐ kistan. The expeditions to the origin sites were mainly made in Mexico, Brazil and Australia. Till now, 2,236 cotton accessions including 2,024 *G. hirsutum* L., 198 *G. barbadense* L. and 14 G. arboretum L were introduced from 53 foreign countries in the last 100 years. The top five countries with a large number of introductions were United States of America, Russia,

**Table 2.** Cotton germplasm exploration in cotton origination place during the past years

Hu Shaoan in Institute of Cotton Research of Chinese Academy of Agricultural Sciences, Chen Zhongfang in Institute of industrial Crops, Jiangsu Academy of Agricultural Sciences

Cotton Germplasm Resources in China http://dx.doi.org/10.5772/58595 39

Shen Duanzhuang, Huang Junqi, Xiao Songhua, Zhou Baoliang et al in Institute of industrial Crops, Jiangsu Academy of Agricultural Sciences

Wang Kunbo, Liu Fang, Zhou Zhongli in Institute of Cotton Research of Chinese Academy of Agricultural Sciences

Wang Kunbo, Liu Fang in Institute of Cotton Research of Chinese Academy of Agricultural Sciences

Wang Kunbo Liu Fang in Institute of Cotton Research of Chinese Academy of Agricultural Sciences

1984 Mexico

2011-2013 Hawaii, USA

2013 Brazil

2013 Australia

Australia, Pakistan and Egypt.

Mexico, including Sonora, Sinoloba, Baja California Sur, Colima, Yucatan, Michoacan, Colima

1979-1993

**Table 1.** Cotton germplasm exploration in China during the past years


**Table 2.** Cotton germplasm exploration in cotton origination place during the past years

**Years Locations Acquirement Explorer and institute**

112 *G. arboreum* L. were

1200 *G. arboreum* L. were collected

73 *G. arboreum* L. were

78 accessions including *G. arboreum* L., and *G. hirsutum* L.

36 *G. arboreum* L. and 16 *G. hirsutum* L.

18 *G. arboreum* L. and 22 *G. hirsutum* L.

89 *G. arboreum* L., 43 *G. hirsutum* L.and 18 *G. barbadense* L.

Six *G. arboreum* L., two *G. barbadense* L.

26 *G. arboreum* L. and 105 *G. barbadense* L.

1956-1961 All over the country Agriculture Ministry and Xiang Xianlin

collected Wang Shanquan, Feng Zhefang

collected Huabei Agriculture Research Institute

Wang Shanquan, Feng Zhefang, Xi Yuanling, Chenren et al in Central Agricultural Institute

Xiang Xianlin in Institute of Cotton Research of Chinese Academy of Agricultural Sciences, science and technology department in Hiannan province.

Xiang Xianlin, Zhang Zhuxian in Institute of Cotton Research of Chinese Academy of Agricultural Sciences, and Yang Shiquan in Guizhou

Liu Guoqiang, Fu Huaiqin in Institute of Cotton Research of Chinese Academy of Agricultural Sciences, Sheng Duanzhuang in Jiangsu Academy of Agricultural Sciences

Wang Kunbo, Liu Fang et al in Institute of Cotton Research of Chinese Academy of Agricultural Sciences

Liu Guoqiang, Jia Yinhua in Institute of Cotton Research of Chinese Academy of Agricultural Sciences

Du Xiongming, Zhou Zhongli, Jia Yinhua, Sun Junling, He Shoupu in Institute of Cotton Research of Chinese Academy of Agricultural Sciences

Sun Junlin, Jia Yinhua, He Shoupu, Pan Zaoe et al in Institute of Cotton Research of Chinese Academy of Agricultural Sciences

Thirteen provinces in china, including Shangdong, Jiangsu, Zhejiang, Liaoning

Sichuan, Yunanan

Hainan Province, including Yaxian, Baoting, Linshui, Yuedong, Baisha, Danxian, Dongfang, Wenchang

Guizhou province, including Kaili, Chongjiang, Rongjiang, Sandou, Luodian, Wangmo, Guanling, Zhenning

Guangxi province, including Donglan, Bama, Nandan, Sanjiang, Fuchuan, Guiping, Debao, Jingxi, Pingguo

province

Yunnan, Guangxi province, including Mojiang, Jiangcheng, Kaiyuan, Maguan, Funing, Napo, Leye, Longlin, Tiandong, Pingguo, Daxin, Debao, Shangsi

2009 Guizhou, Guangxi province 16 *G. arboreum* L.

<sup>2002</sup> Guangxi, Guizhou, Yunan

2012-2013 Guangxi, Guizhou, Yunnan

province

**Table 1.** Cotton germplasm exploration in China during the past years

1939-1949 All over the country, including

1922-1933

38 World Cotton Germplasm Resources

1952

1980

1983

1983

2005

Collections obtained from foreign countries are showed in Table 2 and Table 3. The earlier introduction of germplasm of Upland cotton were Deltapine lines imported from USA which were the main varieties grown in China in 1950s [15-17]. Following, Acala and Stonville lines were also introduced to China which helped to enhance new cultivars by the native breeders based on these materials. From 1980 to 1997, Ma Jiazhang, Xiang Shikang, and Liu Guoqiang imported genetic stocks, PD lines and *G.barbadense* separately. The Soviet Union was also one of the countries that provided their varieties and lines including the early mature and resistant Upland cottons, short branch Sea island cottons and various hybrid lines. Recently, many accessions were exchanged between China and other countries, including Russia and Uzbe‐ kistan. The expeditions to the origin sites were mainly made in Mexico, Brazil and Australia. Till now, 2,236 cotton accessions including 2,024 *G. hirsutum* L., 198 *G. barbadense* L. and 14 G. arboretum L were introduced from 53 foreign countries in the last 100 years. The top five countries with a large number of introductions were United States of America, Russia, Australia, Pakistan and Egypt.


Table 5). In these collections, most of the accessions were originated from all China, and the

**Species Total Catalogued Cataloguing**

Cotton Germplasm Resources in China http://dx.doi.org/10.5772/58595 41

*G. hirsutum* L*.* 7402 6305 1057 *G. barbadence* L. 633 532 101 *G. arbareum* L. 433 350 83 *G. herbaceum* L. 18 15 3

Wild species 32 15 17 Total 8868 7567 1261

7,221 accessions were preserved for long-term in Beijing at-18°C under 57% relative humidity. The collection in Anyang, considered the working collection, contains 8,868 accessions and is maintained at 0°C under 50% relative humidity. The Hainan Island nursery site maintained an *in vivo* collection of 391 wild species and *G. hirsutum* landrace stock accessions in a garden under natural field conditions [18-19]. Over time, the Chinese collection has grown through international germplasm exchange and expeditions. The germplasm expeditions covered most of southern China (Hainan Island, Guangxi, and Guangzhou) and the mountainous areas of Yunnan and west Sichuan provinces. *G. hirsutum* landrace germplasm has also been collected

The seeds of germplasm accessions in the working collection were renewed according to individual accession germination rates. When germination rates fell under 65%, or the weight of individual accession was no more than 150g, these accessions would be increased and renewed for the maintaining of the viability, genetic integrity and releasing for the research. 50-100 seedlings of each individual should been kept in the field for the harvest of enough healthy seeds. The field was chose according to the environments of origins of the accessions for propagation. The *G. hirsutum* L. has been propagated in Anyang, Nanjing, Kuche, and Liaoyang, in the past years. The *G.barbadence* L. has been grown in Kuche or Turpan of Xinjiang because of low rainfall and high temperature weather. The lines sensitive to the Verticillium wilt and Fusarium wilt were grown in disease free field. Some lines that were photoperiod and temperature sensitive were grown in Sanya of Hainan province. The main agronomic traits were checked according to the database descriptors in the germplasm bank, and the mixed seedlings were weeded out for keeping the purity of the accessions and the true accuracy of the database. Cotton germplasm preserved in the local institutes last century were renewed for enough seeds with purity and vitality. Every year more than 300 accessions were renewed

other accessions were imported from 52 countries (Table 6).

*G. hirsutum* lanraces 350 350

**Table 4.** Cotton germplasm in the medium-term germplasm bank

from southern Mexico.

for better seed vitality (Table 7).

**Table 3.** Cotton germplasm importing and collection from foreign country
