棉 花 学 报 Cotton Science 2007，19(5)：337-345
Review and Prospect on Cotton Heterosis Utilization and Study in China Abstract：Heterosis is a common phenomenon in biology kingdom. Early in 1400，the book important arts for the people，s welfare written by Chinese agronomist Jia Xixie recorded such fact that the mule by cross of female horse and male donkey was stronger than its parents. This was an early example of heterosis utilization. Since the concept "heterosis" was put forward by Shull in 1914 ， many scientists early or late studied and discussed utilization of crop heterosis. After America first utilized maize hybrid in field on a large scale in 1930s，heterosis of other crops such as rice，sorghum，rape， vegetable etc began to widely be used in production. Widely utilization of corp heterosis was a great achievement in crop breeding last century，which contributed to notable increasing of crop yield. The paper analyzed cotton production general situation and role by utilizing cotton heterosis in China；the study progress on cotton heterosis mechanism were summarized from heterosis inherent character， physiological and biochemical，molecular basis；the achievement on cotton hybrids breeding and producing hybrid seeds method were reviewed，too.On the basis of the cotton heterosis utilization problem and study status，the paper presented the development direction of China cotton hybrid breeding and utilization for the future.
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