Project Number: 6402-21000-033-01
Project Type: Specific Cooperative Agreement

Start Date: Sep 26, 2007
End Date: Jun 30, 2012

Objective:
Identify biomarkers of high quality cotton grown under critical temperature and drought conditions; describe fundamental functional genomic mechanisms of cellulose synthesis of cotton grown under stress; and define genetic pathways that can be targeted for reniform nematode control.

Approach:
Identify differentially-expressed mRNA and proteins in mature cotton leaves, fibers in elongation phase, fibers in deposition phase, and pollen and ovules in plants grown under critical temperature and drought conditions using nucleotide microarray and high-throughput expression proteomics technologies; identify key regulatory nodes in genetic networks, under temperature and drought stress conditions by combining microarray and expression proteomics data with computational systems-biology network modeling; and physically map and sequence the reniform nematode genome using ultra-high-throughput genome sequencing.