Plant Symposia and Workshops

Significant economic importance of cotton as a fiber crop that has been grown for over 3000 yr requires constant effort to improve its agronomic traits. Biotechnological approach to solve this problem through genetic transformation remains very promising. However, there are particular obstacles and constrains on the path of successful production of transgenic cotton. One of the main problems is an efficient regeneration/ transformation system that allows producing transformed fertile cotton plants. Another serious obstacle is genotype dependency in cotton regeneration system. Alternative solutions to these problems have been attempted in Plant Transformation Lab. Many research groups are working on cotton plant and fiber improvements through molecular biology (functional genomics, proteomics), biotechnology, and breeding. One problem faced by cotton breeders and other researchers is the comparatively long time required for plant growth from seed to flower. One possible strategy that could help to solve this inconvenience is to reduce the time required for flowering by over expressing the FLOWERING LOCUS T (FT) gene. Current status of these and other ongoing experiments will be discussed.