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.