Details

Autor(en) / Beteiligte

• Abdurakhmonov, Ibrokhim Y.
• Buriev, Zabardast T.
• Saha, Sukumar
• Jenkins, Johnie N.
• Abdukarimov, Abdusattor
• Pepper, Alan E.

Titel

Phytochrome RNAi enhances major fibre quality and agronomic traits of the cotton Gossypium hirsutum L

Ist Teil von

• Nature communications, 2014-01, Vol.5 (1), p.3062-3062, Article 3062

Ort / Verlag

London: Nature Publishing Group UK

Erscheinungsjahr

2014

Quelle

MEDLINE

Beschreibungen/Notizen

• Simultaneous improvement of fibre quality, early-flowering, early-maturity and productivity in Upland cotton ( G. hirsutum ) is a challenging task for conventional breeding. The influence of red/far-red light ratio on the fibre length prompted us to examine the phenotypic effects of RNA interference (RNAi) of the cotton PHYA1 gene. Here we show a suppression of up to ~70% for the PHYA1 transcript, and compensatory overexpression of up to ~20-fold in the remaining phytochromes in somatically regenerated PHYA1 RNAi cotton plants. Two independent transformants of three generations exhibited vigorous root and vegetative growth, early-flowering, significantly improved upper half mean fibre length and an improvement in other major fibre characteristics. Small decreases in lint traits were observed but seed cotton yield was increased an average 10–17% compared with controls. RNAi-associated phenotypes were heritable and transferable via sexual hybridization. These results should aid in the development of early-maturing and productive Upland cultivars with superior fibre quality. Improving the quality of cotton fibres is important for agriculture and fibre length is influenced by far-red light. Here, the authors knock down the red/far-red photoreceptor Phytocrome A1 of cotton and show that this enhances cotton fibre length.