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Published on April 15, 2009; 10.1104/pp.109.135459

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Received January 8, 2009
Accepted April 7, 2009

A Specialized Outer Layer of the Primary Cell Wall Joins Elongating Cotton Fibers Into Tissue-like Bundles

Bir Singh , Utku Avci , Sarah E. Eichler Inwood , Mark J. Grimson , Jeff Landgraf , Debra Mohnen , Iben Sorensen , Curtis G. Wilkerson , William G.T. Willats , and Candace H. Haigler *

North Carolina State University, Department of Crop Science, Raleigh, NC 27695-7620 USA; The University of Georgia, Complex Carbohydrate Research Center (CCRC), Athens, GA 30602-4712, USA; Texas Tech University, Department of Biological Sciences/Imaging Center, Lubbock, TX 79409-3131, USA; Michigan State University, Research Technology Support Facility/Genomics, East Lansing, MI 48824-1319, USA; The University of Georgia, Department of Biochemistry and Molecular Biology, Athens, GA 30602-4712, USA; The University of Copenhagen, Department of Biology, 2200 Kobenhavn N, Denmark; Michigan State University, Research Technology Support Facility/Bioinformatics, East Lansing, MI 48824-1319, USA; North Carolina State University, Department of Plant Biology, Raleigh, NC 27695-7620, USA

* Corresponding author; email: candace_haigler{at}ncsu.edu.

Cotton provides the world's dominant renewable textile fiber, and cotton fiber is valued as a research model because of its extensive elongation and secondary wall thickening. Previously, it was assumed that fibers elongated as individual cells. In contrast, observation by cryo-field-emission scanning electron microscopy of Gossypium hirsutum fibers developing in situ within the boll demonstrated that fibers elongate within tissue-like bundles. These bundles were entrained by twisting fiber tips and consolidated by adhesion of a cotton fiber middle lamella (CFML). The fiber bundles consolidated via the CFML ultimately formed a packet of fiber around each seed, which helps to explain how thousands of cotton fibers achieve their great length within a confined space. The cell wall nature of the CFML was characterized using transmission electron microscopy, including polymer epitope labeling. Toward the end of elongation, up-regulation occurred of gene expression and enzyme activities related to cell wall hydrolysis, and targeted breakdown of the CFML restored fiber individuality. At the same time, losses occurred in certain cell wall polymer epitopes (as revealed by Comprehensive Microarray Polymer Profiling) and sugars within non-cellulosic matrix components (as revealed by GC-MS analysis of derivitized neutral and acidic glycosyl residues). Broadly, the data show that adhesion modulated by an outer layer of the primary wall can coordinate the extensive growth of a large group of cells and illustrate dynamic changes in primary wall structure and composition occurring during the differentiation of one cell type that spends only part of its life as a tissue.






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