Colored Cotton: Use Genetic Engineering Method To Cultivate Multiple Types Of Color Fiber Cotton

The pink cotton was obtained by enriching betacyclin in cotton. Courtesy of Cotton Research Institute, Chinese Academy of Agricultural Sciences

Cotton textile processing needs a lot of chemical dyes, which pollutes the environment and affects health. The use of chemical dyes can be effectively reduced by creating different types of colored fiber cotton through genetic engineering. The existing colored cotton is mainly brown and green cotton, with relatively single color, which is difficult to meet people's colorful life needs.

This study first optimized the codon of three key genes related to betacyclin synthesis, and obtained a new cotton material rich in betacyclin with the cotton variety "Zhongmiansuo 49" as the receptor. Driven by the constitutive promoter, cotton fibers and other tissues present pink phenotype. Driven by the fiber specific promoter, only cotton fibers appear pink. The content of betacyclin in mature fiber decreased with the breakdown of vacuoles, resulting in a lighter color. In the next step, researchers will further study the mechanism of beet red pigment deposition without regression. This research is the first time that betacyclin is introduced into cotton and stably expressed, which is a preliminary exploration of synthetic biology research based on cotton as the chassis organism, and lays a foundation for creating new types of colored cotton.

The research was supported by the National Natural Science Foundation of China, the Science and Technology Innovation Project of the Chinese Academy of Agricultural Sciences, and the Yazhouwan Seed Laboratory.