Traditionally, ideal cotton (Gossypium ssp.) fibers are said to be as white as snow, as strong as steel, as fine as silk and as long as wool. It is difficult to incorporate these specifications favored by cotton processors into a breeding program or to set them as quantitative goals for cotton producers. Since the 36 JOURNAL OF COTTON SCIENCE, Volume 4, Issue 1, 2000 early 1980s in the USA, the...

Cotton is the world's leading cash crop, and genetic improvement of fiber yield and quality is the primary objective of cotton breeding program. In this study, we used various approaches to identify QTLs related to fiber yield and quality. Firstly, we constructed a four-way cross (4WC) mapping population with four base core cultivars, Stoneville 2B, Foster 6, Deltapine 15 and Zhongmiansuo No.7 ...

A novel expansin protein (ScExlx1) was found, cloned and expressed from the Basidiomycete fungus Schizophylum commune. This protein showed the canonical features of plant expansins. ScExlx1 showed the ability to form "bubbles" in cotton fibers, reduce the size of avicel particles and enhance reducing sugar liberation from cotton fibers pretreated with the protein and then treated with cellulase...

To understand the mechanism of fiber development and pigmentation formation, the mRNAs of two cotton lines were sequenced: line Z128 (light brown fiber) was a selected mutant from line Z263 (dark brown fiber). The primary walls of the fiber cell in both Z263 and Z128 contain pigments; more pigments were laid in the lumen of the fiber cell in Z263 compared with that in Z128. However, Z263 contai...

The cotton (Gossypium spp.) fiber is a unique elongated cell that is useful for investigating cell differentiation. Previous studies have demonstrated the importance of factors such as sugar metabolism, the cytoskeleton, and hormones, which are commonly known to be involved in plant cell development, while the secondary metabolites have been less regarded. By mining public data and comparing an...

Eliminating unwanted noise in passenger compartments of vehicles is important to automobile manufacturers. The ability to reduce noise inside the vehicle enhances the perceived value of the vehicle to the consumer, and offers a competitive advantage to the manufacturer. Several methods are presently employed to reduce noise and its sources, one of which uses soundabsorbing materials attached to...

The interactions of nanoparticles with polymer hosts have important implications for directing the macroscopic properties of composite fibers, yet little is known about such interactions with hierarchically ordered natural polymers due to the difficulty of achieving uniform dispersion of nanoparticles within semi-crystalline natural fiber. In this study we have homogeneously dispersed silver na...

Mechanical interlocking is widely applied in industry and general lives of human beings. In this work, we realized the control of locking or sliding states of cotton fibers on the metal surfaces with slightly different textures through traditional machining. Three types of sliding states, i.e., locking, one-way sliding, and two-way sliding have been achieved. It is found that the locking or sli...

One of the main issues of nanotechnology is producing materials with new properties. Nanotechnology, as a powerful tool, has the ability to create evolution in the agricultural system and food–medicinal industries across the world. Producing a high-performance material from reclaimed cellulose material will increase motivation to recycle these materials at all phases of paper production and rem...

Imposing a moderate level of nutrient deficiency may be an effective management strategy to limit vegetative growth and enhance maturity of Pima cotton (Gossypium barbadense L.). Whether such deficiency affects fiber quality of American Pima cotton, however, is not well known. A field study was conducted in 1991 and 1992 to determine the fiber quality responses of Pima cotton to nitrogen and ph...