Genetic Analysis of a White Mutant in Cotton.

A cotton, Gossypium hirsutum L., mutant with a new phenotype was discovered in the developmental breeding nursery at College Station, TX in which newly formed leaves turned white and subsequently the seedlings died. Seedlings with white leaves were grown under conditions of low light and a seedling greened and developed into a mature plant that provided the basis for furhter study. Genetic analysis revealed that the expression was controlled by duplicate recessive genes. The aberrant type was called white mutant and assigned the gene symbols wht1wht2. Linkage analysis revealed no detectable associations with the 14 genetic markers of multiple makers T582 and T586.