Amino acid and carbohydrate profiles of cotton plant biomass products

Authors: He, Zhongqi; Olk, Daniel - Dan; ZHANG, HAILIN - Oklahoma State University; Tewolde, Haile; SHANKLE, MARK - Mississippi State University

Submitted to: National Cotton Council Beltwide Cotton Conference
Publication Type: Proceedings
Publication Acceptance Date: 2/22/2018
Publication Date: 5/7/2018
Citation: He, Z. 2018. Amino acid and carbohydrate profiles of cotton plant biomass products. In: Proceedings of the 2018 Beltwide Cotton Conferences, January 3-5, 2018, San Antonio, Texas. p. 115-119.

Interpretive Summary: Cotton is America’s number one value-added crop. Much of the cotton land area in the US is located in the southern and southeastern region. While the most valuable product of a cotton crop is the lint, recent studies have shown that biomass materials from other parts of the cotton plant are also useful as a soil amendment, animal feed, bioenergy sources, and industrial raw materials. In this work, we collected field-grown whole cotton plants and separated them into different biomass fractions -- main stems, leaf blades, branches, petioles, roots, and reproductive part (midseason) or bur, peduncles+bracts, and seed cotton (pre-defoliation). The contents of amino acids and selected carbohydrates in these biomass materials were determined. Thus, this work documented the compositional characteristics of the individual biomass components so that it increased understanding of the accumulation mechanism with plant growth and development. Information on the comparison of the amino acid and carbohydrate profiles of the in-season and pre-harvest samples could be useful in developing an effective diagnostic tool in monitoring plant biosynthesis for cotton plant physiology and management practices to grow a high-yielding and high-quality crop. The relevant data would also be helpful to the cotton industry in making decisions to maximize profitability through better use of cotton biomass resources.

Technical Abstract: Nutrition is essential in cotton plant growth and high quality cotton biomass products and byproducts can be used as animal feed and industrial raw materials. We collected field-grown whole cotton plants and separated them into different biomass fractions -- main stems, leaf blades, branches, petioles, roots, and reproductive part (midseason) or bur, peduncles+bracts, and seed cotton (pre-defoliation). The contents of amino acids and selected carbohydrates in these biomass materials were determined. Both essential and nonessential amino acids were enriched in cotton leaf blades and reproductive parts. The distribution pattern of the selected carbohydrates differed from that of amino acids as higher contents of carbohydrate were found in root, main stem and branch parts. Nutritional carbohydrates and amino acids were further cumulated in the reproductive seed part at pre-defoliation. The information reported in this work would be helpful in exploring and optimizing management practices and processing strategies in utilizing these cotton crop biomass materials as valuable and renewable natural resources.