Abundant mRNAs specific to the developing cotton fibre (Orford and Timmis, 1997)

Five fibre-specific cDNA clones were isolated by differential screening of a cDNA

library from cotton fibres, a developmentally synchronous population of non-dividing cells. The
genes corresponding to these cDNAs were expressed preferentially in fibre cells and exhibited
differing patterns of temporal expression during fibre development. One cDNA encoded a lipid
transfer protein (LTP), and a second encoded a member of a group of well-characterized proline-
rich proteins (PRP) from plants. The presence of signal peptide-encoding sequences suggests that
both the LTP and the PRP are targeted to the extracellular matrix of the fibre, and a role is
envisaged for each in cell elongation. Sequence analysis showed that a third clone was similar to
a previously reported fibre-specific sequence of unknown function, whilst the remaining two
cDNA clones showed no sequence similarity to previously reported plant nucleic acids.
 Reference

Orford, S.J., and Timmis, J.N. 1997. Abundant mRNAs specific to the developing cotton fibre.
TAG Theoretical and Applied Genetics 946:909-918.