Characterization of Pigmentation and Cellulose Synthesis in Colored Cotton Fibers

Abstract

Naturally colored cotton (Gossypium hirsutum L.) fibers (CCFs) are of interest in the textile industry because they require little dyeing and result in less environmental pollution. Pigmentation is one of the most important factors that differentiate CCFs from white cotton fiber (WCF) during fiber maturation. Many factors are involved in pigmentation, some of which we compared between CCFs and WCF with isogenetic backgrounds. These included the type of pigment, the activity of phenylalanine ammonia lyase (PAL), the concentration of total carbohydrates, and the type of soluble saccharide. We aimed to determine the causes of different fiber colors and found that flavonoids were the dominant type of pigment in the CCFs. At maturity (50 d post anthesis [DPA]), the WCF had only about 1/3 the amount of flavonoids as the brown cotton fiber (BCF) and 1/10 that of the green cotton fiber (GCF). During the course of fiber maturation (in particular, the stage before 8 DPA), CCFs had much higher PAL activity than the WCF. Of the fibers, the GCF had the highest concentration of carbohydrates over the course of maturation. However, higher concentrations of total carbohydrates did not always lead to higher concentrations of cellulose. This was very likely due to the synthesis of flavonoids and their derivatives consuming a large amount of carbohydrates that otherwise might be used for the synthesis of cellulose.

In vitro inhibition of pigmentation and fiber development in colored cotton

“…Compared with rotenone, thiourea had a weak toxicity effect on ovule and fiber cell growth in all cotton genotypes, but it can stop the coloration of green cotton fiber. Previous results show that the main type of pigment in green cotton fiber is flavonoids (Dutt et al, 2004;Hua et al, 2007). Flavonoid synthesis derives from a phenylpropanoid pathway with many intermediates belonging to phenyl-ramification.…”

“…However, the different pathways that lead to the development of pigments in colored cotton fiber are not (Kohel, 1985;Murthy, 2001). This might be partially due to complex nature of fiber pigment (Schmutz et al, 1993;Dutt et al, 2004;Hua et al, 2007).…”

“…Several studies have shown that the pigmentation of brown and green cotton fibers might be the result of flavonoids synthesis (Hua et al, 2007;Xiao et al, 2007). The flavonoid biosynthesis pathway has been extensively investigated in many species such as Petunia and Arabidopsis (Buer and Muday, 2004).…”

“…However, the mechanism of its regulation is yet not well explored. Flavonoid biosynthesis is affected by many factors such as carbohydrates (He et al, 2005;Hua et al 2007;Huang et al, 2012), phytohormones (Russell and Galston, 1969;Weiss et al, 1990;Solfanelli et al, 2006), cytochrome c oxidase (COX) (Doostdar et al, 1995;de Vetten et al, 1999;Kitada et al, 2001), and polyphenol oxidase (PPO) (Nakayama et al, 2000). The deactivation of an isolated gene encoded for cytochrome b5 in Petunia could change the color of the flower (de Vetten et al, 1999).…”

Preliminary Study of Determining Trash Components in Lint Cottons by Near Infrared Spectroscopy Technique

“…This visible range reflects the color information and represents the contributions from the pigmentation compounds present in natural fibers, for example, flavonoids and / or degraded products between a reducing sugar and an amino acid [20,21]. Figure 1 compares normalized spectral response among four clean standard fibers that were used to calibrate HVI TM micronaire measurement.…”