Cottonseed protein, oil, and mineral nutrition in near-isogenic Gossypium hirsutum cotton lines expressing leaf color phenotypes under field conditions

Authors: Bellaloui, Nacer; Turley, Rickie; Stetina, Salliana - Sally; Molin, William

Submitted to: Food and Nutrition Sciences
Publication Type: Peer Reviewed Journal
Publication Acceptance Date: 7/22/2019
Publication Date: 7/30/2019
Citation: Bellaloui, N., Turley, R.B., Stetina, S.R., Molin, W.T. 2019. Cottonseed protein, oil, and mineral nutrition in near-isogenic Gossypium hirsutum cotton lines expressing leaf color phenotypes under field conditions. Food and Nutrition Sciences. 10:834-859. https://doi.org/10.4236/fns.2019.107061.
DOI: https://doi.org/10.4236/fns.2019.107061

Interpretive Summary: Cotton is a major crop in the world, and cottonseed protein, oil, and minerals determine the nutritional quality of cottonseed either as food for human or meal for livestock. Therefore, maintaining higher content of nutrients in seeds or improving their nutritional content is critical. The current research was conducted to investigate the effects of leaf color (green and yellow) on cottonseed protein, oil, and mineral nutrition in near isogenic lines (near isogenic lines are closely related cotton varieties that have similar genetic background, but differ in one characteristic, in our case leaf color). A two-year field experiment was conducted in 2014 and 2015 in the Mississippi Delta. The results showed that the seed protein, oil, carbon, nitrogen, and some minerals such as phosphorus, boron, copper, and iron were higher in green leaf lines than the yellow lines, including the yellow parent. Nutrient content in the seed increased as protein and oil increased, indicating an indirect involvement of some minerals such as phosphorus, boron, copper, iron, manganese, zinc, and nickel in nitrogen and carbon metabolism. The differential ability of lines to accumulate different levels of nutrients in seeds would benefit breeders to select cotton genotypes with higher nutritional qualities.

Technical Abstract: Information about the effects of phenotype traits on cottonseed protein, oil, and nutrients is scarce. The objective of this research was to investigate the effects of leaf color trait on seed nutrition in near-isogenic Gossypium hirsutum cotton expressing green (G) and yellow (Y) leaf color phenotypes. Our hypothesis was that leaf color can influence the accumulation of nutrients in seeds. Sets of isogenic lines were: DES 119 (G) and DES 119 (Y); DP 5690 (G) and DP 5690 (Y); MD 51ne (G) and MD 51ne (Y); SG 747 (G) and SG 747 (Y). Each NIL set is 98.44 % identical. Parent line SA 30 (P) was used as the control. The experiment was repeated for two years (2014 and 2015). The results showed that, in 2014, seed oil in DES 119 (G) and SG 747 (G) were significantly higher than their equivalent yellow lines. Green lines showed higher content of phosphorus compared with yellow lines. Higher levels of Cu, Fe, Mn, Ni, and Zn were recorded in DES 119 (G) and MD 5ne (G). In 2015, seed protein, oil, C, N, P, B, Cu, and Fe were higher in green lines than in yellow lines. There was a significant correlation between protein and nutrients, and between oil and nutrients in 2015, but not in 2014 as the temperature was warmer in 2015 than in 2014. This research demonstrated that leaf color can alter seed composition and mineral nutrition under certain environmental growing conditions such as temperature.