
Deconstructing Cotton Fiber's
Biochemical Building BlocksBy Jan Suszkiw March 23, 2000Researchers are closing in on the
biochemical building blocks behind cotton lint's success as a durable,
widely-used natural plant fiber. Their findings could help further improve
strength, uniformity and other fiber properties desired by textile and clothing
makers. Defects in processed cotton fabrics resulting from lint fiber imperfections
cost U.S. textile makers millions of dollars annually. One approach taken by
Glycozyme, Inc.,of Irvine, Calif., and Agricultural Research Service scientists is
to model lint fiber's biochemical and physiological development in cotton
bolls. By sampling bolls from California, Mississippi and South Carolina cotton
fields, they're compiling data to show how environmental factors like day
length, drought, or temperature changes affect fiber properties--and
imperfections like fiber thickness variations that can later plague lint
processing. With such information, cotton growers could better predict their
crop's chief fiber properties before harvest and later market it accordingly. Glycozyme's Allen Murray is doing the work cooperatively with ARS' Judith
Bradow and Gretchen Sassenrath-Cole. They're also investigating the role of
biochemical building blocks, called oligomers, discovered in cotton by Murray
in 1997. Like cellulose, oligomers are moderately long chains of carbohydrate
molecules. But they're shorter and connect to protein. The researchers are building a case that, during development, oligomers
become an essential construction material that coincides with the biosynthesis
of cotton fiber cells secondary wall. The data so far suggests the
carbohydrate/protein duo serves the purpose of "scaffolding" and
"cement" where cellulose--the "bricks"--forms, creating
lint fiber's secondary wall. Too little cellulose there, such as in immature
fibers, and not enough dye may get absorbed. Or, the fibers become snarled to
form tiny knots, called neps, during spinning. Murray will present a paper on the work at the American Chemical Society meeting March 26-30 in
San Francisco, Calif. On the farm, measuring a cotton fiber's oligomer content
and distribution can help reveal stress caused by drought or other
environmental factors. In field studies, this measure of stress is 7 to 10 days
sooner than conventional methods. Scientific contacts: Judith Bradow, ARS
Cotton Fiber
Quality Research Unit, New Orleans, La., phone (504) 286-4479, fax (504)
286-4419, [email protected];
Gretchen Sassenrath-Cole,
Application
and Production Technology Research, Stoneville, Miss., phone (662)
686-3289, fax (662) 686-5372, [email protected]; Allen Murray, Glycozyme, Inc.,
Irvine, Calif., phone (949) 261-9664, fax (949) 261-9078,
[email protected]. U.S. Department of Agriculture | |