Cyto-124: A Remarkable Variety Evolved Against Cotton Leaf Curl Virus Disease Through Introgression

Abstract

Central Cotton Research Institute (CCRI), Multan, Pakistan has evolved an upland cotton cultivar “Cyto-124” through introgression for Cotton Leaf Curl Virus (CLCuV) resistance. It was developed through crossing [{2(G. hir. x G. ano.) X 3G. hir.} x {2(G. arbo. x G. ano.) x 2G. hir. It was tested for seed cotton yield in varietal trials, and zonal varietal trials at Govt. and farmer fields. Cyto-124 gave 37.1, 19.9 and 22.4% higher yield as compared to three standards MNH-786, CIM-554 and CRSM-38 respectively in varietal trials whileCyto-124 had seed cotton yield of 3075 kg ha-1 in-contrast to 2919 kg ha-1 of CIM-573 in zonal trials. Cyto-124 produced more seedcotton yield (SCY) than the standards for two consecutive years (2013 & 2014) in National Coordinated Varietal Trial (NCVT). In NCVT during 2013-14, this strain had a maximum yield of 2244 kg ha-1 compared with 1326 kg ha-1 of standard variety CIM-573 in Punjab. The virus data taken in NCVT indicated that minimum disease incidence (27.9%) was recorded in Cyto-124 making it the more tolerant strain against CLCuV. The approval of this CLCuV resistant cultivar will considerably contribute a lot in the revival of cotton.