Four genome assemblies of new wild Gossypium hirsutum accessions from the Yucatan Peninsula, the center of domestication

Four chromosome-level genome assemblies of wild Gossypium hirsutum from Yucatan, Mexico, are highly contiguous and structurally similar yet distinct, indicating untapped population diversity.

• Why it matters: Modern cotton cultivars have a narrow germplasm base, creating vulnerabilities to emerging pests, and wild Yucatan populations may harbor useful resistance and stress-adaptation alleles.
• What they did: The study generated four new genome assemblies from distinct wild populations in Yucatan and compared them with existing G. hirsutum genomes, including preliminary analyses of NLR immune receptor genes.
• The result: Comparative and NLR analyses suggest population-linked variation, potentially including presence-absence variation, enabling discovery of novel disease resistance alleles and broader germplasm expansion.

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