Manipulating the chemical composition of cotton fibre cell walls to produce fibres with novel properties
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Manipulating the chemical composition of cotton fibre cell walls to produce fibres with novel properties

 

Project Leader: Filomena Pettolino

Key Researchers: Filomena Pettolino, Colleen MacMillan, Vivien Rolland, Stuart Gordon

Brief Summary of Project Objectives: 

The aim of this project is to modify cotton fibre properties, primarily elongation and strength, by targeting specific polysaccharide and protein components of the cotton fibre cell wall, namely callose and AGPs.  Market/ end user: Cotton growers and spinners through the development of cotton germplasm with novel quality traits that can be deployed through the Core Breeding Project as the primary end user of the research.

Estimated year to uptake by end user:

This is a long-term project to identify and validate novel fibre quality traits so new cultivars are many years away. The research may identify useful genes or markers that might be applied sooner through conventional and marker assisted breeding methods. The minimum timeframe is at least 10 years, but likely much longer.

Executive Summary

Key highlights of the last year’s research have been:

  • Plants are emerging for silencing and overexpression of GhGSL1 and GhGSL15 transformation in cotton, with only one construct proving difficult to generate.
  • We have evidence that GhGSL15 induces callose production in N. benthamiana transient leaf assays.
  • Chemical induced inhibition of callose alters fibre strength and elongation.
  • Transgenic cotton at T2 stage for the RNAi silencing and two sets of over-expression lines for GhFLA7 were analysed for gene expression and HVI fibre analysis. Only minor differences in fibre quality were observed.
  • Based on promoter-GUS analysis, the cotton GhFLA7 promoter is most active in late maturing fibre, with no evidence of activity in roots or trichomes of young seedlings, contrary to findings in Arabidopsis.
  • Computer modelling of the FLA7 protein suggests the FAS protein domain involved in protein-protein interactions can be exposed or hidden via the action of an adjacent hinged protein domain.
  • Ome-Guided Genomic Prediction (OGGP) work commenced to test improvement of genomic prediction for fibre quality through integration of RNA-based knowledge.