Research Highlights
Cotton ESTs during early stages of fiber development
Approximately 35,000 high-quality ESTs (1/3 more than proposed) were developed from cotton(Gossypium hirsutum L. cv. TM-1) ovules and fiber cell initials, which were periodically updated in Cotton Gene Index (from CGI7 to CGI9) via a continuous collaboration with Dr.Chris Town at JCVI.
Cotton spotted oligonucleotide microarrays were developed using ~23,000 unigene assembly in collaboration with Dr.Jonathan Wendel. The Cotton Oligonucleotide Microarray (v2) can be ordered, and the hybridization protocols can be found at Comparative Evolutionary Genomics of Cotton.
Microarrays have been used to analyze gene expression changes in the naked seed mutants and isogenic lines that differ in fiber bundle strength, translating into cotton breeding programs.