Aberrant Expression of Critical Genes during Secondary Cell Wall Biogenesis in a Cotton Mutant, Ligon Lintless-1 (Li-1)

Over ninety percent of the value of cotton comes from its fiber; however, the genetic mechanisms governing fiber development are poorly understood. Due to their biochemical and morphological diversity in fiber cells cotton fiber mutants have been useful in examining fiber development; therefore, using the Ligon Lintless (Li-1) mutant, a monogenic dominant cotton mutant with very short fibers, we employed the high throughput approaches of microarray technology and real time PCR to gain insights into what genes were critical during the secondary cell wall synthesis stage. Comparative transcriptome analysis of the normal TM-1 genotype and the near isogenic Li-1 revealed that over 100 transcripts were differentially expressed at least 2-fold during secondary wall biogenesis, although the genetic profile of the expansion phase showed no significant differences in the isolines. Of particular note, we identified three candidate gene families-expansin, sucrose synthase, and tubulin-whose expression in Li-1 deviates from normal expression patterns of its parent, TM-1. These genes may contribute to retarded growth of fibers in Li-1 since they are fiber-expressed structural and metabolic genes. This work provides more details into the mechanisms of fiber development, and suggests the Li gene is active during the later stages of fiber development.