What is it about?

Cultivated cotton is the most important source of natural textile fiber globally, yet the geographic origin of the modern gene pool and the amount of diversity within and among natural populations have been unclear. Here we use extensive sampling of wild populations and comparative genome sequence to quantify the amount and patterning of wild cotton diversity across its native range. We show that the Yucatán Peninsula (México) was the center of original domestication, from which later modern annualized cultivars were derived. Our study quantifies diversity in wild cotton populations and reveals the origin of the cultivated gene pool, the genetic bottlenecks accompanying domestication, and the likely ecological and anthropogenic processes that shaped modern diversity and geographic patterning.

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Why is it important?

By understanding the domestication history of the world's most important fiber crop plan, we simultaneously reveal "what is left behind" in nature. These vast wild genetic resources contain far more variation than was captured in the crop plant, and likely include all kinds of genes that include cotton production, resilience in the face of climate change, disease resistance, or other unforseen needs. We also learn a great deal about how evolution works at the genomic level

Perspectives

I am so very grateful to be part of a global scientific community that can work over the decades and across the globe, collaboratively advancing scientific knowledge and altering paradigms. This work was initiated in my lab about 40 years ago, but we finally have the molecular and analytical tools, as well as the collaborative research team, to pull it all together and reach this new level of insight into genetic origin and structure of a globally vital crop plant

Jonathan Wendel
Iowa State University

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This page is a summary of: Genomic diversity and the domestication history of cotton ( Gossypium hirsutum ), Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, May 2026, Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences,
DOI: 10.1073/pnas.2607107123.
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