Genetic Diversity Assessment in Fiber Crop Species

Genetic diversity underpins the resilience, adaptability and productivity of fibre crops such as cotton, jute, kenaf and flax. Assessing the extent and structure of variation within and between populations informs the conservation of germplasm, guides breeding for improved fibre quality and supports sustainable cultivation in the face of environmental change. Traditional approaches have employed morphological characterisation—examining traits such as plant height, fibre fineness and boll or capsule number—while molecular methods now predominate. High-throughput techniques, including single-nucleotide polymorphism (SNP) genotyping and genotyping-by-sequencing (GBS), reveal genome-wide patterns of polymorphism, population structure and historical bottlenecks. Marker-trait associations identified through genome-wide association studies (GWAS) facilitate the pinpointing of loci affecting fibre strength, cellulose content and stress tolerance. Integrating diverse datasets—from complete reference genomes to expressed sequence tag (EST) markers—enables the development of core collections and the deployment of marker-assisted selection to accelerate varietal improvement. Such efforts have global significance, offering routes to bolster yield, enhance fibre properties and support circular bioeconomies that depend on renewable plant-derived materials.

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Genetic Diversity Assessment in Fiber Crop Species publication trend

The graph below shows the total number of articles in genetic diversity assessment in fiber crop species across all publications each year (not limited to Nature Index journals).

Technical terms

Single-nucleotide polymorphism (SNP): A variation at a single base pair in DNA, widely used as a marker to assess genetic variation and map traits.

Simple sequence repeat (SSR): A molecular marker consisting of tandemly repeated short DNA motifs, valuable for diversity studies due to high polymorphism.

Genome-wide association study (GWAS): A statistical analysis linking genome-wide markers to phenotypic traits, enabling the identification of loci affecting important characteristics.

Genotyping-by-sequencing (GBS): A reduced-representation sequencing approach that simultaneously discovers and genotypes thousands of SNPs across many individuals.

References

1. Genome-Wide Association Study for Agronomic Traits in Gamma-Ray-Derived Mutant Kenaf (Hibiscus cannabinus L.). Plants (2024).
2. Reference genomes of the two cultivated jute species. Plant Biotechnology Journal (2021).
3. Development of Expressed Sequence Tag–Simple Sequence Repeat Markers Related to the Salt-Stress Response of Kenaf (Hibiscus cannabinus). Agronomy (2023).