Media Contacts:
Dr. Candace Haigler, 919/515-5645
Cetty Abraham, 919/215-2768
Mick Kulikowski, News Services, 919/515-3470

Nov. 6, 2003

Scientist Researches New Ways of Improving Cotton Plant, Fiber

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

New research at North Carolina State University is examining novel ways of improving the cotton plant, a Southern staple crop and vital cash crop in North Carolina.

Dr. Candace Haigler, a cotton fiber specialist, recently joined the crop science and botany departments at NC State from Texas Tech University. She’s working on new ways of making the cotton plant more resistant to the negative effects of cooler temperatures, and making cotton fiber stronger.

Her work focuses on how the cotton fiber wall becomes thick by the process of cellulose synthesis, or the creation of cellulose, as well as how to make the cotton fiber stronger by improving this process. Haigler also looks at other aspects of the cotton plant, such as physiology and fiber cell structure, in hopes of improving the cotton plant.

Haigler and her peers are just beginning to understand cellulose synthesis sufficiently to attempt to control it by manipulating plant genes. “Only recently have a few key proteins been identified in this process,” she says.

Cotton fiber is composed mostly of cellulose, located in the secondary cell wall of the fiber, making the cotton fiber one of the purest forms of cellulose. “Cellulose makes cell walls of cotton fibers thick, which is important in making strong textiles that can absorb dyes for clothing more efficiently,” says Haigler.

As the major structural component of plants, cellulose provides shape, strength and other functions important to the plant. Cellulose is also the most abundant renewable resource on the planet, and is formed from polymers of glucose molecules, or long strings of sugar molecules. More research in the control and regulation of cellulose synthesis is important since there remains much to be discovered about the process, Haigler says.

“New knowledge would enable biotechnology companies to engineer plants to make cellulose more efficiently and in improved forms,” she says. Cellulose in agricultural waste can also be a source of biomass, or environmentally friendly energy, if it is converted to fuel.

“The cotton fiber is a unique cell because it’s over an inch long, and it’s rare that individual cells are of this length,” Haigler says. “This is one key characteristic that makes cotton a useful textile fiber,” she says. The cotton fiber is also unusual in that it can be entirely separated from the seed. When studying cotton fiber cells at the biochemical or molecular levels, Haigler says, this characteristic prevents confusion with other cell types and their phenomena.

Cooler temperatures slow and disrupt the growth of cotton fiber by affecting its ability to make cellulose in the cell wall. Haigler’s groundbreaking work involves looking at the stress sensitivity of cellulose synthesis. “By manipulating the enzyme sucrose phosphate synthase, the cotton plant’s biochemical pathway can be genetically engineered to make the plant less sensitive to cool temperatures,” Haigler says.

Haigler has worked with Michigan State University scientists to better understand and research cellulose synthesis. They have produced a cDNA library, or library that stores genetic information, that contains clones specific to the process of forming the secondary cell wall of the cotton fiber. “To date, 8,000 clones have been sequenced, and further analysis will provide new clues about cellulose synthesis,” she says.

Haigler also uses cutting-edge techniques to acquire accurate information about cell structure and where proteins are located within cells of the cotton fiber. Commonly used methods often capture disrupted structure as the cells die during experimental procedures. In contrast, Haigler is working on improved methods to immobilize cell structure during experiments, thereby maintaining the cell structure as it was when the cell was alive.

Haigler’s work complements other ongoing cotton research projects at NC State. Faculty in entomology, plant pathology and soil science breed new pest-resistant varieties of cotton, for example, while faculty in agricultural economics assist farmers in the planning, management and marketing skills necessary for improved cotton productivity.

In addition to Cotton Inc., a consortium of cotton producers, the National Science Foundation, the state of Texas, Texas Tech University and private companies have supported Haigler’s research.

- abraham -