Cotton is a strategic crop that contributes significantly to the supply chain for the ever-growing textile and garment industries in Ethiopia. This work aimed to study the genetic potential of Ethiopian cotton germplasm with respect to important fiber quality traits. A total of 219 cotton germplasm comprising of three interspecific ( G. hirsutum x G. barbadense ), 11 G. barbadense L. and 205 G. hirsutum L. were used. Fiber quality traits, including micronaire, length, uniformity index, strength, and elongation, were tested using USTER®HVI 1000 under a controlled laboratory environment. Analysis of variance revealed significant variation among the test materials in all the studied traits. A wide range was also observed for micronaire (3.08–5.96), fiber length (22.90–37.19 mm) and fiber strength (22.02–46.68 g/tex). High heritability was recorded for micronaire, fiber length and strength (83.4, 75.33 and 87.04, respectively), whereas the uniformity index and fiber elongation exhibited moderate heritability (67.27 and 65.88, respectively). The percentage of the mean genetic advance was high for fiber strength (22.73), low for the uniformity index (3.59) and medium for micronaire, fiber length, and fiber elongation (18.72, 11.08, and 15.82, respectively). The germplasm evaluated in the study were grouped into five clusters. Principal component analysis revealed that the first two principal components accounted for about 72% (50.28% and 21.39%, respectively) of the total variation. The fiber length and strength showed greater loadings on the first component, indicating their greater contribution to total variability and their strong discriminatory power among germplasm. A significant correlation was exhibited between fiber length and all the other fiber quality traits, suggesting the possibility of concurrent improvement through direct selection. Overall, this study revealed substantial genetic variation within Ethiopian cotton germplasm, highlighting their potential value for strategic conservation and breeding efforts for developing cotton cultivars with specific fiber quality needs. • The studied population harbors substantial genetic variation in fiber quality traits. • Fiber strength was highly heritable with a high degree of genetic advance. • The uniformity index, fiber length and strength showed greater eigenvector loadings. • The cluster analysis delineated the germplasm into five distinct groups. • Cotton germplasm with high fiber quality were identified.
Gurmessa et al. (Sun,) studied this question.