Project description:Cotton fiber is actually unicellular trichome, therefor its length is really hard to be modified but very meaningful to fiber quality and yield. We have reported the function of the second RRM domain of Oryza sativa FCA in rice cell size regulation. Data shows it is highly conserved across dicotyledonous and monocotyledonous plants. Here we provide evidence showing that the second RRM domain of Brassica napus FCA worked in Gossypium hirsutum, leading to the enlargement of multiple types of cells, such as pollen, cotyledon petiole and cotton fiber. In the transgenic cotton, the length of unicellular cotton fiber increased by about 10% and fiber yield per plant also showed a dramatic increase, ranging from 35% to 66%, over the control. Thus, this RRM domain may be an ancient and common cell size regulator and has great economic value on cotton industry.
Project description:Cotton fiber is actually unicellular trichome, therefor its length is really hard to be modified but very meaningful to fiber quality and yield. We have reported the function of the second RRM domain of Oryza sativa FCA in rice cell size regulation. Data shows it is highly conserved across dicotyledonous and monocotyledonous plants. Here we provide evidence showing that the second RRM domain of Brassica napus FCA worked in Gossypium hirsutum, leading to the enlargement of multiple types of cells, such as pollen, cotyledon petiole and cotton fiber. In the transgenic cotton, the length of unicellular cotton fiber increased by about 10% and fiber yield per plant also showed a dramatic increase, ranging from 35% to 66%, over the control. Thus, this RRM domain may be an ancient and common cell size regulator and has great economic value on cotton industry. FCA encodes a strong promoter of the transition to flowering in Arabidopsis thaliana, which contains two RRM (RNA recognition motif) domain and a WW protein interaction domain (Macknight et al., 1997). We have previously found that cell size and yield of rice (Oryza sativa) can be increased by ectopic expression of the first RRM domain of OsFCA (Hong et al., 2007). The second RRM domain of OsFCA can also increase cell size (Attia et al., 2005), suggesting OsFCA-RRMs each play a role in homeostatic cell size regulation. We designate them as Oryza sativa cell size RRM 1 (Os-csRRM1) and Oryza sativa cell size RRM 2 (Os-csRRM2), respectively. Both of them exhibit a high degree of evolutionary conservation in plant. For Os-csRRM2, significant homology was observed in Triticum aestivum (90% identity), Hordeum vulgare (90% identity), Lolium perenne (82% identity), Zea mays (81% identity),Ricinus communis (76% identity), Vitis vinifera (68% identity), Arabidopsis thaliana (68% identity) and Brassica napus (64% identity) (Fig. 1). The high degree of conservation suggests that this RRM domain might have similar function in different plants. Indeed, we observed that overexpression of Bn-csRRM2 also increased the cell size of B. napus (unpublished data). As cotton fiber length is a key factor in cotton yield and quality, we investigated whether this attribute could be enhanced by constitutive expression of Bn-csRRM2. Transgenic and wild-type cotton were grown in same condition. The leaves of 25 day and 45 day plants were harvested for microarray analysis. RNA samples were isolated from 3 biological replications using TRIzol (Invitrogen) as described by the manufacturer. Microarray analyses were carried out using Agilent Cotton Gene Expression Microarray (G2519F-022523). Microarrays were scanned on Agilent Technologies Scanner G2505C and data points were extracted using Agilent Feature Extraction software (Version 10.7.1.1). Comparisons were made between transgenic samples and their corresponding wild-type samples.
Project description:Sea-island cotton (Gossypium barbadense L.) has superior fiber quality properties such as length, fineness and strength, while Upland cotton (Gossypium hirsutum L.) is characterized by high yield. To reveal features of Upland cotton and Sea-island cotton fiber cells, differential genes expression profiles during fiber cell elongation and in secondary wall deposits were established using cDNA microarray technology. This research provides a valuable genomic resource to deepen our understanding of the molecular mechanisms of cotton fiber development, and may ultimately lead to improvements in cotton fiber quality and yield.
Project description:Sea-island cotton (Gossypium barbadense L.) has superior fiber quality properties such as length, fineness and strength, while Upland cotton (Gossypium hirsutum L.) is characterized by high yield. To reveal features of Upland cotton and Sea-island cotton fiber cells, differential genes expression profiles during fiber cell elongation and in secondary wall deposits were established using cDNA microarray technology. This research provides a valuable genomic resource to deepen our understanding of the molecular mechanisms of cotton fiber development, and may ultimately lead to improvements in cotton fiber quality and yield. 15 samples were prepared for microarray slides hybridized with three biological replicate samples including a swap-dye experiment for each growth stage. Each spot had a repeat in the microarray slideM-oM-<M-^Ltherefore, data for six replicate experiments performed with biologically independent samples.
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:Sea Island cotton (Gossypium barbadense) is the source of the world’s finest fiber-quality cotton, yet relatively little is understood about the genetic variation among diverse germplasm, the genes underlying important traits, and the effects of pedigree selection. Here, we resequenced 336 G. barbadense accessions and identified 16 million SNPs. Phylogenetic and population structure analyses revealed two major gene pools and a third admixed subgroup derived from geographical dissemination and interbreeding. We conducted a genome-wide association study (GWAS) of 15 traits including fiber quality, yield, disease resistance, maturity, and plant architecture. The highest number of associated loci was for fiber quality, followed by disease resistance and yield. Using gene expression analyses and VIGS transgenic experiments we confirmed the role of five candidate genes regulating four key traits, i.e., disease resistance, fiber length, fiber strength, and lint percentage. Geographical and temporal considerations demonstrate selection for the superior fiber quality (fiber length and fiber strength), and high lint-percentage in improving G. barbadense in China. Pedigree selection breeding wholly increased Fusarium wilt disease resistance, and separately improved fiber-quality and yield. Our work provides a foundation for understanding genomic variation in and selective breeding of Sea Island cotton.
Project description:Cotton is the most important economic crop that provides natural fibre and by-products such as oil and protein. The global gene expression could provide insight into the biological processes underlying growth and development, which involving suites of genes expressed with temporal and spatial controls by regulatory networks. Improvement of cotton fiber in yield and quality is the main goal for molecular breeding, but many previous research have been largely focused on identifying genes only in fibres, so that we ignore seed which may play an important role in the development of fibers. In this study, we constructed and systematically analyzed twenty-one strand-specific RNA-Seq libraries on Gossypium hirsutum L. covering different tissues, organs and development stages, of which approximately 970 million reads were generated. In total, 5,6754 transcripts derived from 2,9541 unigenes were obtained to provide a global view of gene expression for cotton development. Hierarchical clustering of transcriptional profiles suggests that transcriptomes among tissues or organs corresponded well to their developmental relatedness. The organ (tissue)-specific gene expressions were investigated efficiently and provided further insight into the dynamic programming of the transcriptome, in particularly for coordinating development between fiber cell and seed (ovule). We identified series of transcription factors and seed-specific genes, which as the candidate genes should help elucidate key mechanisms and regulatory networks that underlie fiber and seed development. This report identified comprehensive transcriptome changes in different stage of cotton development and will serves as a valuable genome-wide transcriptome resource for cotton breeding. Examination of transcriptome of cotton