CSIRO scientists developing naturally-coloured cotton
Australian scientists believe they have discovered a way to genetically modify cotton so that it grows in different colours. Achieving naturally-coloured cotton would be a major step in minimising the environmentally-damaging use of chemical dyes.
The work is being done by plant breeders at CSIRO, the Commonwealth Scientific and Industrial Research Organisation, which is an Australian government agency for scientific research.
As reported by Tim Lee in Australia’s ABC news publication, the team of researchers led by Colleen MacMillan have “cracked cotton's molecular colour code” and are adding genes that cause the plants to produce a colour.
They have already seen colours ranging from bright yellows to deep purple. Though the work looks promising, the team won’t know for sure whether their process is successful into the plant tissues they’ve grown in petri dishes grow into flowering cotton plants.
