BEIJING, (Pakistan Point News - 10th Apr, 2023) Chinese researchers recently discovered a plant hormone which can regulate cotton fibre growth and is expected to improve the quality of cotton fibre, Xinhua news Agency reported today.
Cotton is an important cash crop in China and the main raw material used by the textile industry, which means that cotton fibre's quality determines the quality of textiles.
Brassinosteroid (BR), a growth-promoting phytohormone, regulates many plant growth processes, including cell development. However, the mechanism by which BR regulates fibre growth was poorly understood.
Researchers from the Institute of Cotton Research under the Chinese academy of Agricultural Sciences discovered that BR can promote the molecular mechanism of cotton fibre elongation by modulating very-long-chain fatty acid biosynthesis.
Several key genes that regulate important characteristics of cotton can all be used as technical reserves to guide cotton production in the future, said Li Fuguang, leader of the research team.
"Next, we will continue to study whether BR plays a role in other ways, hoping to realise the transformation of sci-tech achievements to boost agricultural production," he said.
The researchers published their study results in three journals namely Plant Cell, Plant Physiology and Plant Biotechnology Journal.
