Advances in Cotton Genetic Linkage Map and Its Application

Genetic linkage map based upon DNA marker provides an essential tool to study genome structure,function,and evolution.With the invention and application of DNA markers,many kinds of markers,such as RFLP,RAPD,AFLP,SSR and SRAP,have been employed in mapping many importantly agronomical genes and/or QTLs.Through analyzing the present allotetraploid cotton genetic linkage map,we found that the representative interspecific linkage map was relatively saturated,and the intraspecific upland linkage map only covered a small part of cotton genome.Meanwhile,many studies about agronomical QTL mapping completed,and the studies about MAS,map-based cloning and physical map have started.Therefore,the further work is to increase the marker density of interspecific linkage map,and construct the intraspecific upland genome-wide linkage map.