Bridging Classical and Molecular Genetics of Abiotic Stress Resistance in Cotton

The effect on abiotic stress on productivity of crop plants and particularly cotton is discussed (section 1) with an emphasis on water stress, the major abiotic stress factor (section 2). Plant responses to abiotic stress are briefly discussed (section 3), followed by the origin of cotton and its implications for the available genetic resources for abiotic stress resistance (section 4). The next sections describe attempts to dissect and improve cotton resistance to abiotic stress using classical genetics (section 5), genomic (section 6) and transgenic (section 7) approaches. It is concluded (section 8) that there is an urgent need to improve abiotic stress resistance of cotton, a task that has become more feasible with the currently available knowledge and genomic tools.