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Partnership for better cotton

Focus on yield improvement, stress resistance and fiber quality

The collaboration aims to identify previously inaccessible genes and incorporate them into certain cotton varieties using innovative technologies.

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The collaboration aims to identify previously inaccessible genes and incorporate them into certain cotton varieties using innovative technologies.

How can the quality of cotton be further improved? Bayer CropScience and U.S.-based Nature Sources Genetics plan to pursue this goal together. To this end the two companies have entered into an exclusive five-year collaboration involving the pre-breeding and enhancement of cotton germplasm. The goal of the collaboration is to identify previously inaccessible genes and incorporate them into certain cotton varieties using innovative technologies. Bayer CropScience will initially concentrate on the areas of yield improvement, stress resistance – both biotic and abiotic – and fiber quality. However, more traits will be added as the program expands.

“The collaboration between Bayer CropScience and Nature Source Genetics takes cotton breeding to a completely new level and marks a significant expansion in the strategic scope of our cotton breeding program,” says Mike Gilbert, Cotton General Manager at Bayer CropScience.