Brown-colored cotton fiber is increasing in importance because it skips
dyeing and bleaching during textile processing. This characteristic makes it
more eco-friendly than white cotton and chemical fibers. However, studies
have shown that the brown pigment is associated with low yield and low fiber
quality. Thus, studying the biochemical and molecular basis of pigmentation
is important to improve the color, productivity, and fiber quality of
brown-fiber cotton and broaden its applications.

Researcher Qian Yan from Southwest University in China and colleagues
perform gene expression and transgenic analyses of a cotton version of an
Arabidopsis gene TT2, which is involved in the synthesis of the brown
pigment in cotton fiber. This cotton gene called GhTT2$B!>(B3A is observed to be
involved in the activation of genes involved in brown pigment synthesis. The
researchers also find that increasing the amount of this gene during the
stage of secondary wall thickening resulted in brown mature fibers with
fiber quality and lint percentage almost the same as the white fiber
counterpart. Therefore, this gene may be a key to improve the yield and
quality of brown fiber cotton.



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