Abstract

Cotton is a valuable crop around the globe as well as in Pakistan and plays a crucial role in the national economy. But the yield of cotton has been stagnant since last decade due to climate change. Bio-stimulants are considered growth regulators that enhance the growth of crops even in unfavorable climatic conditions. To this end, a study was carried out to characterize the cotton accessions for biochemical and fiber quality features and their genetic association for their potential use in breeding high-yielding climate-resilient cotton cultivars. The experimental factors include eleven cotton genotypes (8 × 3 line into tester design) with their 24 F1 hybrids factorially combined with three bio-stimulant treatments i.e., T0 control, T1 (MLE application at seedling) and T2 (MLE application at seedling and at flowering stage). The collected data were evaluated for fiber quality (ginning outturn, micronaire value, fiber length, fiber strength, and fiber maturity) and biochemical traits (carotenoid contents, total chlorophyll, chlorophyll "a," chlorophyll "b,” and cellulose contents). Analysis of variance depicted significant effects for genotypes and bio-stimulants on all the traits. Correlation analyses depicted significant and positive associations among fiber length and fiber strength, chlorophyll "a," carotenoids contents, chlorophyll "b” and total chlorophyll. This association depicts that by improving the chlorophyll contents, fiber quality can be improved. It is concluded that bio-stimulants improved the biochemical traits (chlorophyll a, b, carotenoids contents and cellulose), which results in improvement of fiber quality traits of cotton.