The stratospheric ozone depletion and enhanced solar ultraviolet-B (UV-B) irradiance may have adverse impacts on the productivity of agricultural crops. The effect of UV-B enhancements on agricultural crops includes reduction in yield, alteration in species competition, decrease in photosynthetic activity, susceptibility to disease, and changes in structure and pigmentation. Many studies have e...

As a fundamental step towards creating a new class of cellulose engineering materials, the proposed research investigated swelling and dissolution of cellulose in NaOH aqueous solvent systems (NaOH/H2O, NaOH/thiourea/H2O and NaOH/thiourea/urea/H2O). The dependence of swelling and dissolution behavior of cellulose fibers on the quality of the solvent was investigated in detail. For the two cellu...

Transcription factors play key roles in plant development and stress responses through their interaction with cis-elements and/or other transcription factors. Homeodomain associated leucine zipper proteins (HD-Zip) constitute a family of transcription factors that are characterized by the presence of a DNAbinding domain closely linked with leucine zipper motif functioning in dimer formation. Th...

the abilities of silybum marianum cell culture to biotransform benzaldehyde to benzyl alcohol in three culture systems were compared. callus cultures of silybum marianum were established from seedlings, and healthy suspensions and immobilized cultures grown on the murashige and skoog medium. s. marianum cells were immobilized in both agar beads and fiber cotton matrixes. benzaldehyde was fed to...

As distinct from the cereal crops and the spring-flowering fruits, which are characterized by a reproductive climax, cotton is like the tomato and cucurbits in its indeterminate growth; but it is different in the minor extent to which fruit size is influenced by environment and fruitfulness. In a regional variety study (3), 16 varieties of cotton planted during each of three years at eight loca...

Cotton (Gossypium hirsutum L.) mRNA (H6) is expressed predominantly in fiber cells and is present during early primary cell wall formation. However, H6 protein is found to accumulate during later stages, when active secondary cell wall formation occurs, indicating possible regulation at the translational level and function in the secondary cell wall assembly. The nucleotide-derived amino acid s...

Cotton is the most important textile crop as a result of its long cellulose-enriched mature fibers. These single-celled hairs initiate at anthesis from the ovule epidermis. To date, genes proven to be critical for fiber development have not been identified. Here, we examined the role of the sucrose synthase gene (Sus) in cotton fiber and seed by transforming cotton with Sus suppression construc...

background: workers in cotton industry are occupationally exposed to various dust-related hazards. the nature of these agents and the respective exposure levels depend on the cotton industry specific sector. these exposures could be associated with respiratory symptoms and changes in lung function parameters. objective: to evaluate associations between occupational exposure and respiratory func...

Understanding the molecular processes affecting cotton (Gossypium hirsutum) fiber development is important for developing tools aimed at improving fiber quality. Short fiber cotton mutants Ligon-lintless 1 (Li1) and Ligon-lintless 2 (Li2) are naturally occurring, monogenic mutations residing on different chromosomes. Both mutations cause early cessation in fiber elongation. These two mutants se...