Longer Cotton Fibre
An international team involving researchers from the United States and Uzbekistan has developed longer and stronger cotton fibre. The team used RNA interference (RNAi) technique to knock-down one particular gene and the method enabled longer fibre
An international team involving researchers from the United States and Uzbekistan has developed longer and stronger cotton fibre. The team used RNA interference (RNAi) technique to knock-down one particular gene and the method enabled longer fibre. The results have been published in a recent edition of Nature Communications.
According to Associate Professor Alan Pepper of Texas A&M University, a co-author of the study, they used a cross between long fibre plant and a short fibre plant and then used RNAi to interfere with a particular phytochrome gene. According to the researchers, stronger and longer fibre will result in at least $100 improvement in income per acre. The team involved scientists from Texas A&M, USDA Laboratory at Mississippi State University and Uzbekistan Academy of Sciences. According to the information available at the US Patent Office, the team has filed for a US Patent.
