Regulation of cotton lint growth

Article By:

Zhu, Yu-Xian State Key Laboratory of Protein and Plant Gene Research, College of Life Sciences, Peking University, Beijing, China.

Last reviewed:2014

DOI:https://doi.org/10.1036/1097-8542.YB140277

Cotton is one of the world's economically important crop plants and is the most prevalent natural source for the textile industry. Approximately 33 million hectares (81.5 million acres), or 5% of the world's arable land, is used for cotton planting, producing an annual global textile mills market value of $630.6 billion in 2011. Cotton lint, which is the industrial name for cotton fiber, is a single-celled trichome (plant appendage) produced from the ovule epidermis. Apart from its economic value, cotton is also an excellent model system for studying cell elongation, cell wall biosynthesis, and polyploidization (chromosomal multiplication). Recent progress with regard to ethylene, very long chain fatty acids (VLCFAs), reactive oxygen species (ROS), and calcium signaling has contributed toward deciphering the molecular mechanisms that regulate lint cell expansion. This information has enabled the proposal of a linear cell-growth mode that may be common to cotton lint and similar cell types.

The content above is only an excerpt.