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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 #283151
Title: A rapid measurement for cotton breeders of maturity and fineness from developing and mature fibers

Author
item Rodgers Iii, James
item Delhom, Christopher
item Hinchliffe, Doug
item Kim, Hee-Jin
item Cui, Xiaoliang

Submitted to: Textile Research Journal
Publication Type: Peer Reviewed Journal
Publication Acceptance Date: 11/19/2012
Publication Date: 7/25/2013
Citation: Rodgers III, J.E., Delhom, C.D., Hinchliffe, D.J., Kim, H.J., Cui, X. 2013. A rapid measurement for cotton breeders of maturity and fineness from developing and mature fibers. Textile Research Journal. 83(14):1439-1451.

Interpretive Summary: Cotton fiber maturity and fineness are important fiber properties that can impact the fiber’s downstream processing and the quality of yarn and fabric. The Cottonscope is a new instrument that simultaneously measures fiber maturity and fineness using a very small amount of fiber. Previous evaluations had demonstrated the Cottonscope’s ability to measure fiber maturity and fineness on mature cotton fibers. A program was implemented to establish the potential and capabilities of the Cottonscope to rapidly and accurately measure maturity and fineness on small quantities of near isogenic cotton lines (NILs) and to examine the use of the Cottonscope maturity distributions for breeder applications. Cottonscope measurements were performed on mature and developing fibers with wide days post anthesis (DPA) ranges from two pairs of NILs (MD 52ne vs. MD 90ne; TM-1 vs. im). Genetically similar cotton (Gossypium hirsutum L.) NILs, MD 52ne and MD 90ne, show almost identical fiber properties except for fiber strength. Between the other pair of NILs, im fibers were less mature with lower maturity ratio (MR) values than TM-1 fibers. The patterns of cotton maturity and fineness during cotton fiber development (20 DPA to maturation) of each NIL measured by the Cottonscope were compared to those measured by more conventional methods that require more fiber sample preparation and/or laborious works. Distinct changes with increasing DPA were observed for the Cottonscope maturity and fineness measurements. The Cottonscope maturity and fineness results were much more responsive to increasing DPA than the AFIS results. The patterns of maturity values measured by the Cottonscope during developmental stages of cotton fibers were consistent with those of the Fibronaire micronaire values for MD 52ne and MD 90ne. Comparisons of the Cottonscope maturity distributions among the NILs demonstrated that the MR distribution for the im line was very different and exhibited much lower maturity values compared to the distributions of other lines. The results demonstrated that the Cottonscope is an efficient instrument for cotton breeders to monitor fiber maturity and fineness of developing and mature cotton fibers.

Technical Abstract: The fiber’s maturity and fineness are important fiber properties that can impact the fiber’s downstream processing and the quality of yarn and fabric. The Cottonscope is a new instrument that simultaneously measures the fiber’s maturity and fineness using a very small amount of fiber sample. Previous evaluations had demonstrated the Cottonscope’s ability to measure fiber maturity and fineness on mature cotton fibers. A program was implemented to establish the potential and capabilities of the Cottonscope to rapidly and accurately measure maturity and fineness on small quantities of near isogenic cotton lines (NILs) and to examine the use of the Cottonscope maturity distributions for breeder applications. Cottonscope measurements were performed on mature and developing fibers with wide days post anthesis (DPA) ranges from two pairs of NILs (MD 52ne vs. MD 90ne; TM-1 vs. im). Genetically similar cotton (Gossypium hirsutum L.) NILs, MD 52ne and MD 90ne, show almost identical fiber properties except for fiber strength. Between the other pair of NILs, im fibers were less mature with lower maturity ratio (MR) values than TM-1 fibers. The patterns of cotton maturity and fineness during cotton fiber development (20 DPA to maturation) of each NIL measured by the Cottonscope were compared to those measured by more conventional methods (HVI®, AFIS, Fibronaire and/or cross-section image analysis microscopy) that require more fiber sample preparation and/or laborious works. Distinct changes with increasing DPA were observed for the Cottonscope maturity and fineness measurements. The Cottonscope maturity and fineness results were much more responsive to increasing DPA than the AFIS results. The patterns of maturity values measured by the Cottonscope during developmental stages of cotton fibers were consistent with those of the Fibronaire micronaire values for MD 52ne and MD 90ne. Comparisons of the Cottonscope maturity distributions among the NILs demonstrated that the MR distribution for the im line was very different and exhibited much lower maturity values compared to the distributions of other lines. The results demonstrated that the Cottonscope is an efficient instrument for cotton breeders to monitor fiber maturity and fineness of developing and mature cotton fibers.