The Post-Genomic Era for Cotton

Background and Rationale The scientific infrastructure in support of cotton research and improvement took a ‘giant leap forward’ with the release of the first ‘gold-standard’ cotton reference genome sequence on 5 January 2012. Later in 2012, two independent publications (Paterson et al. 2012; Wang et al. 2012) provided initial descriptions of the basic genome of cotton, with one of these also revealing new insights into the genes and processes that have permitted the tetraploid species Gossypium hirsutum (‘Upland’ cotton) and G. barbadense (Egyptian, Sea Island, and Pima cotton) to largely supplant the diploids G. herbaceum and G. arboreum as the providers of the world’s leading natural fiber (Paterson et al. 2012).