Molecular engineering on quality improvement of cotton fiber

Cotton is the most important economic crop, and its fiber is the major raw material used for textile industry. Cotton fiber with its good properties such as thermal insulation, hygroscopicity, and air-permeability, can not be replaced by other fibers. With rapid development of textile technology and the increasing requirement of consumers for higher quality of textile products, it is urgent to improve cotton fiber quality, especially its strength and color. There is genetically a negative correlation between the yield and the quality of cotton, therefore molecular engineering-breeding could be an access to concordant improvement of both yield and quality of cotton fiber. This paper reviewed the progress of analyzing cotton fiber-related genes and the present status of improving cotton fiber quality by genetic engineering. Some breakthroughs are expected in separating fiber development-related genes with high throughput techniques and in exploring the novel technology to manipulate transgenic cottons.