Effect of Fiber Maturity on Bundle and Single Fiber Strength of Upland Cotton

Cotton fiber maturity and strength are major physical properties affecting qualities of fibers and yarns. Despite extensive studies, the relationships between maturity and strength have been controversial among cotton scientists. Due to a lack upland of cotton varieties having a broad range of fiber maturity and strength, their relationship had been mainly studied from developing fibers at various stages consisting of different fiber maturity and strength values. Multiple reports had shown that fiber maturity values obtained from various developing fibers were not correlated to their fiber strengths, whereas crystallinity values were correlated to their strengths. However, these previous conclusions were unable to explain how fiber maturity and crystallinity are positively correlated during the fiber development. Therefore, we re-examined if and how fiber maturity of cotton fibers affects bundle and single fiber strength. To do it, we generated 168 upland cotton lines producing a broad range of micronaire (2.04~5.73) and bundle strength (22.9~38.6 g/tex) by crossing four different upland varieties with immature mutant. Based on the extensive phenotypic analyses of the newly generated upland cotton lines, we concluded that fiber maturity contribute to bundle fiber strength and single fiber breaking force differentially. Detailed results will be presented in the presentation.