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:Local breeds retained unique genetic variability important for adaptive potential especially in light of challenges related to climate change. Our objective was to perform, for the first time, a genome-wide diversity characterization using Illumina GoatSNP50 BeadChip of autochthonous Drežnica goat breed from Slovenia. Genetic diversity analyses revealed that the Slovenian Drežnica goat has a distinct genetic identity and is closely related to the neighboring Austrian and Italian alpine breeds. These results expand our knowledge on phylogeny of goat breeds from easternmost part of the European Alps.
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:In this study, the skin tissues were harvested from the three stages of hair follicle cycling (anagen, catagen and telogen) in a fiber-producing goat breed. In total, 63,109,004 raw reads were obtained by Solexa sequencing and 61,125,752 clean reads remained for the small RNA digitalization analysis. This resulted in the identification of 399 conserved miRNAs; among these, 326 miRNAs were expressed in all three follicular cycling stages, whereas 3, 12 and 11 miRNAs were specifically expressed in anagen, catagen, and telogen, respectively. We also identified 172 potential novel miRNAs by Mireap, 36 miRNAs were expressed in all three cycling stages, whereas 23, 29 and 44 miRNAs were specifically expressed in anagen, catagen, and telogen, respectively. Gene Ontology and KEGG pathway analyses indicated that five major biological pathways (Metabolic pathways, Pathways in cancer, MAPK signalling pathway, Endocytosis and Focal adhesion) accounting for 23.08% of target genes among 278 biological functions, indicating that these pathways are likely to play significant roles during hair cycling. the skin tissues were harvested from the three stages of hair follicle cycling (anagen, catagen and telogen) in a fiber-producing goat breed
Project description:Each cotton seed has approximately 25,000 singular fiber cells, which account for 25-30% epidermal cells. Understanding the basis of fiber cell initiation is critical for cotton yield improvement. However, it is difficult to separate and study fiber and non-fiber cells. Here we developed a reliable single-cell protocol to study transcriptome changes in Upland and Pima cotton and in a naked seed mutant. We analyzed over 40,000 single cells derived predominately from the epidermal layer of ovules during early stages of fiber development.