Novel Key Player and Controlling Pathway for Cotton Fiber Growth Uncovered

  Cotton is one of the major cash crops widely planted in over 80 countries, with an annual output value of $12 billion, mainly for fiber. Cotton fibers, the most important natural material for textile industry, are extremely long, single-celled seed-born trichomes.Research group led by Professor Xiaoya Chen in Institute of Plant Physiology and Ecology,Shanghai lnstitues for Biological Scinces, Chinese Academy of Scinences isolated a cotton fiber elongation gene,GhHOX3.