Abstract
Cotton fiber is multigenic trait controlled by number of genes. Previous studies suggest that one of these genes may be responsible for switching cotton fiber growth on and off to influence the fiber quality produced from a cotton seed. In the present study, the Gossypium hirsutum GhEXPA8 fiber expansin gene was introduced into local cotton variety NIAB 846 by using an Agrobacterium-mediated gene transformation. The neomycin phosphotransferase (NPTII) gene was used as a selection marker for screening of putative transgenic cotton plants. Integration and expression of the fiber expansin gene in cotton plants was confirmed with molecular techniques including Southern blot analyses, real-time PCR. Cellulose assay was used for measurement of cellulose contents of transgenic cotton fiber. The data collected from 3 years of field performance of the transgenic cotton plants expressing GhEXPA8 showed that significant improvement has been made in fiber lengths and micronaire values as compared to control G. hirsutum variety NIAB 846 cotton plants. Statistical techniques were also used for analysis of fiber and agronomic characteristics. The results of this study support improvement of cotton fiber through genetic modification.
Highlights
Cotton belongs to the Malvaceae family, which includes hibiscus and okra, and is in the Gossypium genus, which grows world-wide (Wendel and Cronn, 2003)
A total of 8500 embryos were transformed with the GhEXPA8 gene and selected on MS medium containing 50 mg/ml kanamycin (Figure 1)
The results of the present study support the hypothesis that increased expression of GhEXPA8 in transgenic cotton plants led to improved fiber characteristics of cotton plants, as determined by molecular analysis
Summary
Cotton belongs to the Malvaceae family, which includes hibiscus and okra, and is in the Gossypium genus, which grows world-wide (Wendel and Cronn, 2003). Cotton crop is the main source of pure, natural cellulose fibers which is used to create fabric products. The fruit of the cotton plant is a boll that protects the seeds and cotton fibers, which are soft and delicate (Constable et al, 2014). Cotton (Gossypium spp.) is one of the most important economic crops in the world, especially Gossypium hirsutum L., which provides more than 90% of the total cotton fiber produced. The fibers are the seed hairs of cotton, originating from the epidermal cells of the ovular surface (Liu et al, 2005). Cotton bolls are open at maturity, revealing soft masses of fibers. Cotton fibers are long (30–40 mm) and thin (15 μm) unicellular structures that emerge from the epidermal cells in the outer integuments of cotton ovules (Kim and Triplett, 2001)
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