Towards doubling fibre yield for cotton in the semiarid agricultural area by increasing tolerance to drought, heat and salinity simultaneously.

Abiotic stresses such as extreme temperatures, water-deficit and salinity negatively affect plant growth and development, and cause significant yield losses. It was previously shown that co-overexpression of the Arabidopsis vacuolar pyrophosphatase gene AVP1 and the rice SUMO E3 ligase gene OsSIZ1 in Arabidopsis significantly increased tolerance to multiple abiotic stresses and led to increased seed yield for plants grown under single or multiple abiotic stress conditions. It was hypothesized that there might be synergistic effects between AVP1 overexpression and OsSIZ1 overexpression, which could lead to substantially increased yields if these two genes are co-overexpressed in real crops.

A method to improve cotton fiber length measurement for laboratory analysis.

Cotton fiber length is an essential parameter for the cotton industry and cotton research. However, differences between industry- and laboratory-scale ginning may lead to inconsistencies between research and industry results for measured length. Seedcotton from farms is processed in large industry-scale gins, while researchers typically use small laboratory-scale gins.

Functionalization of a cotton fabric surface with titania nanosols: applications for self-cleaning and UV-protection properties.

In this study, cotton fabric was successfully modified by titania nanosols prepared by means of the sol-gel process with tetrabutyl orthotitanate [Ti(OC(4)H(9))(4)] as the active ingredient. The cotton fabric was padded with the nanosol solution, dried at 60 degrees C, and cured at 150 degrees C. Scanning electron microscopy showed the presence of a titania film on the fiber surface.

Transgenic cotton over-producing spinach sucrose phosphate synthase showed enhanced leaf sucrose synthesis and improved fiber quality under controlled environmental conditions.

Prior data indicated that enhanced availability of sucrose, a major product of photosynthesis in source leaves and the carbon source for secondary wall cellulose synthesis in fiber sinks, might improve fiber quality under abiotic stress conditions. To test this hypothesis, a family of transgenic cotton plants (Gossypium hirsutum cv. Coker 312 elite) was produced that over-expressed spinach sucrose-phosphate synthase (SPS) because of its role in regulation of sucrose synthesis in photosynthetic and heterotrophic tissues.