Project description:This study was initiated with the objective of identifying the anther/tapetum specific promoters from cotton floral buds. Cotton is an important commercial crop. Hybrid cotton varieties are developed to obtain improved yield and fiber quality. Most of the hybrid seed production in cotton is carried out by hand emasculation, which requires large amount of manpower, resulting in high cost of hybrid seed. We are developing barnase-barstar based male sterility system, which would be a better alternative for hybrid development. The tapetum specific promoters are main requirement for such a system. The study was thus carried out to identify genes expressed in the anthers.
Project description:This study was initiated with the objective of identifying the anther/tapetum specific promoters from cotton floral buds. Cotton is an important commercial crop. Hybrid cotton varieties are developed to obtain improved yield and fiber quality. Most of the hybrid seed production in cotton is carried out by hand emasculation, which requires large amount of manpower, resulting in high cost of hybrid seed. We are developing barnase-barstar based male sterility system, which would be a better alternative for hybrid development. The tapetum specific promoters are main requirement for such a system. The study was thus carried out to identify genes expressed in the anthers. Cotton bud sizes were correlated with tapetum development. RNA was isolated from following tissues: • Anther tissues from buds at pre-meiotic stage of development (Tapetum absent) • Buds without anther tissues at pre-meiotic stage of development • Anther tissues from buds during meiosis (Tapetum present) • Buds without anther tissues during meiosis • Anther tissues from buds at post-meiotic stage of development (Tapetum degenerated) • Buds without anther tissues at post-meiotic stage of development • Leaf tissues • Seedling 5 days after germination Biotin labeled cRNA was hybridized on Affymertix cotton Genechip Genome array following Affymetrix protocols. Three biological replicates were maintained.