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ARS Home » Southeast Area » New Orleans, Louisiana » Southern Regional Research Center » Cotton Structure and Quality Research » Research » Publications at this Location » Publication #313273

Title: Use of attenuated total reflection Fourier transform infrared (ATR FT-IR) spectroscopy in direct, non-destructive, and rapid assessment of developmental cotton fibers grown in planta and in culture

Author
item Liu, Yongliang
item Kim, Hee-Jin

Submitted to: Applied Spectroscopy
Publication Type: Peer Reviewed Journal
Publication Acceptance Date: 2/26/2015
Publication Date: 8/1/2015
Citation: Liu, Y., Kim, H.J. 2015. Use of attenuated total reflection Fourier transform infrared (ATR FT-IR) spectroscopy in direct, non-destructive, and rapid assessment of developmental cotton fibers grown in planta and in culture. Applied Spectroscopy. 69(8):1001-1010.

Interpretive Summary: The cotton ovule culture methods were optimized and used as a powerful tool for numerous cotton researches, because they provide a number of advantages over field growth when unraveling many aspects of experimental protocols including inhibitors and controlled environmental conditions. The cultured fibers show substantial similarity in fiber development and chemical composition to the fibers grown in planta. However, the fibers grown in culture differ from those grown in planta in some attributes, such as fiber length and cellulose content. This study reported the use of ATR-FTIR technique to monitor the spectral changes between two types of fibers, and also compared the transition from fiber primary to secondary cell wall biosyntheses between two fibers through principal component analysis (PCA) and simple algorithms involving the characteristic bands. The outcome provides cotton breeders and quality researchers an effective diagnostic tool in monitoring fiber cellulose biosynthesis for fiber physiology and breeding applications.

Technical Abstract: Cotton fibers are routinely harvested from cotton plants (in planta), and their end-use qualities depend on their development stages. Cotton fibers are also cultured at controlled laboratory environments, so that cotton researchers can investigate many aspects of experimental protocols in cotton breeding programs at reduced expenses. In this work, attenuated total reflection Fourier transform infrared (ATR-FTIR) spectra of cotton fibers grown in planta and in culture were collected to explore the potential of FTIR technique as a simple, rapid, and direct method for characterizing the fiber development. Complementary to visual inspection of spectral variations, principal component analysis (PCA) of ATR-FTIR spectra revealed the occurrence of phase transition from primary to secondary cell wall synthesis and also the difference of starting the phase transition between two types of fibers. Like PCA observation, three simple algorithms were capable of monitoring the secondary cell wall formation effectively. Interestingly and uniquely, simple algorithms were able to detect the subtle discrepancies in fibers older than 25 days post anthesis (DPA), which was not apparent from PCA result. The observation indicated the feasibility of FTIR technique in rapid, routine, non-destructive, and direct assessment of fiber development for cotton physiology and breeding applications