Texas AgrLife Research, a part or the Texas A&E University System, has received a large donation of cotton technology from Monsanto, one of the world's leading ag riculture companies.

The donation, approximately 4,000 Simple Sequence Repeat (SSR) cotton molecular markers, will be offered to the public through globally accessible cotton genomic databases. Their use will ultimately benefit breeders and other researchers involved in cotton improvement, including many supported by Cotton Incorporated.

Dr. Don Jones, of Cotton Incorporated, said "Monsanto's effort to discover, verify, and now release these markers is significant. With a more complete database, breeding programs will become more efficient. In addition, geneticists and germplasm researchers will gain more understanding of diversity within the Upland cotton germplasm pool and between related Gossypium species. Ultimately growers will benefit with higher lint yields, improved fiber quality, and increased tolerance to many diseases, insects and stresses that affect cotton growth and development."