Improving early maturity in upland cotton (Gossypium hirsutum L.) is an importanttarget in breeding. The node of the first fruiting branch (NFFB) and its height (HNFFB) aretwo important indexes to measure early maturity in cotton. To facilitate breeding for earlymaturity traits in upland cotton and reveal the genetic control underlying the two traits, agenome-wide association study was performed using 53,848 high-quality single nucleotidepolymorphisms (SNPs) from 77.774 0f a recently developed Cotton SNP80K array. A total of55 target trait-associated SNPs were detected, of which 12 SNPs were for NFFB and 43 werefor HNFFB. Two SNPs for NFFB and 22 SNPs for HNFFB were repeatedly detected in atleast two environments and/or by iwo models. These 24 SNPs also exhibited high phenotypiccontributions of more than 10% and could be used for marker-assisted selection in futurebreeding programs.Furthermore, 89 candidate genes were identified in the genome sequenceof upland cotton. These genes were categorized through Gene Ontology analysis.Gh A05G1482 might be a potential candidate gene for improving the early maturation ofcottom These findings reveal the genetic control underlying NFFB and HNFFB and provideinsight into genetic improvements for early maturity in upland cotton.
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