Abstract:

Cotton is the most important economic crop, and its fiber is the major raw material used for textile industry. Cotton fiber with its good properties such as thermal insulation, hygroscopicity, and air-permeability, can not be replaced by other fibers. With rapid development of textile technology and the increasing requirement of consumers for higher quality of textile products, it is urgent to improve cotton fiber quality, especially its strength and color. There is genetically a negative correlation between the yield and the quality of cotton, therefore molecular engineering-breeding could be an access to concordant improvement of both yield and quality of cotton fiber. This paper reviewed the progress of analyzing cotton fiber-related genes and the present status of improving cotton fiber quality by genetic engineering. Some breakthroughs are expected in separating fiber development-related genes with high throughput techniques and in exploring the novel technology to manipulate transgenic cottons.

基于半胱氨酸排列方式的植物类金属硫蛋白
的分类与命名法
刘进元*  吕暾  赵南明
（清华大学生物科学与技术系，北京100084）

摘要：随着植物基因组研究的进展，在基因文库和蛋白文库登录的植物类金属硫蛋白基因已超过５０个，接近金属硫蛋白总数的１／３，而且有不断上升的趋势。鉴于目前植物类金属硫蛋白命名与分灰随意性太大，很有必要建立一个统一合理的命名与分类法。对植物类金属２硫蛋白一级结构进行详细分析后，发现该蛋白两端富含半胱氨酸的区域内关胱氨酸的排列方式颇具规律性，进而提出了以半胱氨酸排列方式为基础的分类及命名法，并阐述了采用这种方法的理由及其可行性。

关键词： 植物类金属硫蛋白；半胱氨酸排列方式；分类及命名法

Key words: cotton, fiber quality, molecular engineering