**6. Future Recommendation**

Such coverage in the localization of QTLs controlling different quantitative traits suggested a close genotypic correlation among these traits or a pleiotropic effect of a single gene. It remains to be tested whether these common genomic regions have pleiotropic effects or there are clusters of tightly linked genes for some related traits in these regions. A more numerous mapping population and more closely spaced markers in the map are needed to determine whether the QTLs correspond to a gene with pleiotropic effects or to several separate but closely linked genes, each controlling a single character.

**Author Contributions:** Conceptualization, S.R., M.B. and S.A.M.; writing and draft preparation, S.R., M.B., T.N. and S.A.M.; writing, review, and editing, S.R., M.B., T.N. and S.A.M.; supervision, M.B. and S.A.M. All authors have read and agreed to the published version of the manuscript.

**Funding:** Authors are grateful to the Higher Education Commission (HEC) Pakistan, for providing funds under PIN 074-0747-Bm4-151, Indigenous 5000 Fellowship Program for this study.

**Acknowledgments:** The presented study is part of research proposal Mapping QTL's associated with heat tolerance in cotton using microsatellite markers. Author is grateful to Allah almighty, supervisors, Peng Chee (Associate University of Georgia, USA), Edward Lubbers (Research Associate at cotton molecular breeding lab, university of Georgia, Tifton campus, USA) Bahauddin Zakariya University Multan and Higher Education Commission (HEC) Pakistan.

**Conflicts of Interest:** The authors declare no conflict of interest. The funders had no role in the design of the study; in the collection, analyses, or interpretation of data; in the writing of the manuscript, and in the decision to publish the results.
