Efficacy of botanical product, 'EZEE Cotton' was tested at two doses of 1 ml/l and 2 ml/l in comparison with propiconazole (0.1%), acephate 2 g/l and biocontrol agents, Pseudomonas fluorescens and Trichoderma viride,each treated at 10 g/kg seed and foliar application @ 0.1% at Regional Agricultural Research Station, Lam,Guntur, during Kharif 2012 and 2013 against fungal diseases of cotton. EZEE Cotton at 2 ml/l was on par with 0.1% propiconazole in controlling Alternaria leaf spot and rust. Between the doses, EZEE Cotton at 2 ml/l gave better control of both the diseases. EZEE Cotton gave maximum disease control of 73.4% followed by propiconazole (71.8%). T. viride ST 10 g/kg and FS 1% as well as propiconazole 0.1% gave maximum control of rust (69%). Propiconazole 0.1% and T. viride increased the yield to the tune of 42.8% followed by EZEE Cotton at 42.3%. Highest Benefit Cost Ratio (BCR) of 1.43 was obtained with T. viride followed by propiconazole (1.42) and EZEE Cotton (1.41). Maximum incremental benefit cost ratio (IBCR) of 9.48 was also obtained with T. viride and P. fluorescens was the next best with 7.45 IBCR, while propiconazole recorded 6.46 IBCR. Higher cost of EZEE Cotton resulted in lower IBCR. Based on the results obtained, it is concluded that EZEE Cotton is effective against cotton diseases including Alternaria leaf spot and rust and thus can be part of integrated disease management of cotton.

BRS 372 and BRS 416 are cotton cultivars with high lint yield and genetic resistance to the main cotton diseases in Brazil, particularly to Ramularia Leaf Spot. They have stable yields, good fiber quality and can contribute to a sustainable cotton disease management in tropical environments. | Cultivar release.

Abstract BRS 372 and BRS 416 are cotton cultivars with high lint yield and genetic resistance to the main cotton diseases in Brazil, particularly to Ramularia Leaf Spot. They have stable yields, good fiber quality and can contribute to a sustainable cotton disease management in tropical environments.

Abstract Background Cotton Verticillium wilt is one of the most devastating diseases for cotton production in the world. Although this diseases have been widely studied at the molecular level from pathogens, the molecular basis of V. dahliae interacted with cotton has not been well examined. Results In this study, RNA-seq analysis was carried out on V. dahliae samples cultured by different root exudates from three cotton cultivars (a susceptible upland cotton cultivar, a tolerant upland cotton cultivar and a resistant island cotton cultivar) and water for 0 h, 6 h, 12 h, 24 h and 48 h. Statistical analysis of differentially expressed genes revealed that V. dahliae responded to all kinds of root exudates but more strongly to susceptible cultivar than to tolerant and resistant cultivars. Go analysis indicated that ‘hydrolase activity, hydrolyzing O-glycosyl compounds’ related genes were highly enriched in V. dahliae cultured by root exudates from susceptible cotton at early stage of interaction, suggesting genes related to this term were closely related to the pathogenicity of V. dahliae. Additionally, ‘transmembrane transport’, ‘coenzyme binding’, ‘NADP binding’, ‘cofactor binding’, ‘oxidoreductase activity’, ‘flavin adenine dinucleotide binding’, ‘extracellular region’ were commonly enriched in V. dahliae cultured by all kinds of root exudates at early stage of interaction (6 h and 12 h), suggesting that genes related to these terms were required for the initial steps of the roots infections. Conclusions Based on the GO analysis results, the early stage of interaction (6 h and 12 h) were considered as the critical stage of V. dahliae-cotton interaction. Comparative transcriptomic analysis detected that 31 candidate genes response to root exudates from cotton cultivars with different level of V. dahliae resistance, 68 response to only susceptible cotton cultivar, and 26 genes required for development of V. dahliae. Collectively, these expression data have advanced our understanding of key molecular events in the V. dahliae interacted with cotton, and provided a framework for further functional studies of candidate genes to develop better control strategies for the cotton wilt disease.

Cotton (Gossypium L.) is one of the most important commercial crops and it is famous as white gold. Cotton has a diversity of applications, principally medicinal and many other usages, such as pigments, derivatives for cattle feed, different uses of the oil extracts and etc. Cottonseed oil has a ration of 2:1 of polyunsaturated to saturated fatty acids and generally consists of 65-70% unsaturated fatty acids, including 18-24% monounsaturated (oleic) and 42-52% polyunsaturated (linoleic), and 26-35% saturated (palmitic and stearic). The most important health benefits of cotton is treat respiratory diseases, treat skin problems, treat wounds, beneficial for breastfeeding mothers, a good cure for rat bite, an appropriate cure for scorpion bite, for joint and eye pains, for swollen legs, for removing bacteria in teeth, and alternative medicine for various diseases such as cancer, HIV and etc. Cotton seed oil mostly extracted from Gossypium hirsutum and Gossypium herbaceum, that are also grown for cotton fiber and animal feed. Gossypol is one of the most effective ingredients, both in traditional pharmaceutical practices and alternative modern medicinal preparations. It is a toxic polyphenolic bisesquiterpene, which may have antifertility and antiviral properties. The obtained findings suggest potential of cotton as a natural resource in pharmaceutical industries.

The occurrence of crop pests and diseases always affects the development of agriculture seriously, while pest meteorology showed that climate is important in affecting the occurrence. Recently, recurrent neural network (RNN) has been broadly applied in various fields, which was designed for modeling sequential data and has been testified to be quite efficient in time series problem. This paper proposes to use bi-directional RNN with long short-term memory (LSTM) units for predicting the occurrence of cotton pests and diseases with climate factors. First, the problem of occurrence prediction of pests and diseases is formulated as time series prediction. Then the bi-directional LSTM network (Bi-LSTM) is adopted to solve the problem, which can capture long-term dependencies on the past and future contexts of sequential data. Experimental results showed that Bi-LSTM shows good performance on the occurrence prediction of pests and diseases in cotton fields, and yields an Area Under the Curve (AUC) of 0.95. This work further verified that climate indeed have strong impact on the occurrence of pests and diseases, and circulation parameters also have certain influence.

This paper reviews an important topic within the broader framework of the use of ratoon cotton for the development of a cost-saving and efficient method for the perennial production of hybrid cotton seeds. Cotton has a botanically indeterminate perennial growth habit and originated in the tropics. However, cotton has been domesticated as an annual crop in temperate areas worldwide. Ratoon cultivation has an important application value and is important for cotton production, breeding, and basic research. In particular, ratooned male-sterile lines have four advantages: an established root system, an indeterminate flowering habit, ratooning ability, and perennial maintenance of sterility in the absence of a matched maintainer. These advantages can help reduce the costs of producing F1 hybrid cotton seeds and can help breed high-yielding hybrid combinations because ratooning is a type of asexual reproduction that allows genotypes to remain unchanged. However, ratooning of cotton is highly complex and leads to problems, such as the accumulation of pests and diseases, decreased boll size, stand loss during severe winters, and harmful regrowth during mild winters, which need to be resolved. In summary, ratoon cotton has advantages and disadvantages for the production of hybrid cotton seeds, and future prospects of ratooning annual cotton for the perennial utilization of heterosis are promising if the mechanization of seed production can be widely applied in practice.

Cotton possesses certain physical features, including leaf and stem trichomes that help plants deter damage caused by insect pests, and to some extent, from abiotic factors as well. Among those features, trichomes (pubescence) hold a special place as a first line of defense and a managemental tool against sucking insect pests of cotton. Different insect pests of cotton (whiteflies, aphids, jassids, and boll weevil) severely damage the yield and quality of the crop. Likewise, whiteflies, aphids, jassids, and other insect pests are considered as potential carriers for cotton leaf curl viruses and other diseases. Genotyping by sequencing (GBS) study was conducted to understand and explore the genomic regions governing hairy (Pubescence) leaves and stem phenotypes. A total of 224 individuals developed from an intraspecific cross (densely haired cotton (Liaoyang duomao mian) × hairless cotton (Zong 128)) and characterized phenotypically for leaf and stem pubescence in different environments. Here we identify and report significant QTLs (quantitative trait loci) associated with leaf and stem pubescence, and the response of plant under pest (aphid) infestation. Further, we identified putative genes colocalized on chromosome A06 governing mechanism for trichome development and host–pest interaction. Our study provides a comprehensive insight into genetic architecture that can be employed to improve molecular marker-assisted breeding programs aimed at developing biotic (insect pests) resilient cotton cultivars.