Basic/helix-loop-helix (bHLH) proteins comprise one of the largest transcription factor families and play important roles in diverse cellular and molecular processes. Comprehensive analyses of the composition and evolution of the bHLH family in cotton are essential to elucidate their functions and the molecular basis of cotton development. By searching bHLH homologous genes in sequenced diploid...

Plant genomes are larger and more complex than other eukaryotic organisms, due to small and large duplication events, recombination and subsequent reorganization of the genetic material. Commercially important cotton is the result of a polyploidization event between Old and New World cottons that occurred over one million years ago. Allotetraploid cotton has properties that are dramatically dif...

Unlike other major crops in which seeds provide most of the economic value, cotton seed is largely a by-product of more valuable fiber production and represents only approximately 15% of the farm gate value of the cotton crop. A cotton plant normally produces about 1.6 kg of seed for every kg of lint. Following ginning to remove the lint fiber, fuzzy cotton seed is either used directly as anima...

Gossypium hirsutum cellulose synthase catalytic subunit 4 (GhCesA4) plays an important role in cellulose biosynthesis during cotton fiber development. The transcript levels of GhCesA4 are significantly up-regulated as secondary cell wall cellulose is produced in developing cotton fibers. To understand the molecular mechanisms involved in transcriptional regulation of GhCesA4, β-glucuronidase (G...

The single-celled cotton (Gossypium hirsutum) fiber provides an excellent model to investigate how human selection affects phenotypic evolution. To gain insight into the evolutionary genomics of cotton domestication, we conducted comparative transcriptome profiling of developing cotton fibers using RNA-Seq. Analysis of single-celled fiber transcriptomes from four wild and five domesticated acce...

The cellulosic fabrics cotton, rayon, and Tencel® are commonly used in the textile industry (Kroschwitz, 1990). The chemical composition of the fabrics is similar, but they differ in the arrangement of the cellulose polymers in the fabrics (Collier and Tortora, 2001). The basic polymer for all cellulosic fibers consists of repeating glucose units. For the cotton fabric, the cellulosic polymers ...

Introduction: Protection against harmful effects of ultraviolet radiation (UV) is measured under Ultraviolet Protection Factor (UPF) scale. The utilization of protective clothing is the best way to deal with the damage caused by ultraviolet radiation. The purpose of this study was to compare the ultraviolet ray protective factor of pure cotton and cotton coated with ti...