Genetics and Genomics of Cotton

Abstract

The deposition of > 90% cellulose in the cotton fiber secondary wall makes this unique cell powerful for understanding cellulose biogenesis, a process with great importance in nature and industry. This chapter provides an overview of cellulose biogenesis, summarizes how cotton fiber has previously facilitated unique insights in this field, and explains how cellulose is important in terms of cotton fiber physical properties. The nature of the cotton fiber secondary wall transcriptome is discussed, including comparisons to primary-wall-stage fiber and the Arabidopsis proteome. Microarray data, including validation by quantitative reverse transcription PCR, are described to show that transcriptomes for secondary wall deposition in cotton fiber and xylem are similar. The functional context of selected genes that are up-regulated for secondary wall deposition is discussed