Cotton Functional Genomics: Lessons Learned from the Gossypium arboreum L. Fiber dbEST and Expression Profiling using cDNA Microarrays

Over the last decade,no more than 50 cottonfiber genes have been described in the literature.However,our view of the molecular basis of thecotton fiber has changed dramatically in just afew short years as a direct result of high-throughput EST sequencing projects.As part ofthe NSF Cotton Genome Project,a fiber dbESTcontaining】36000 sequences was generatedfrom expanding cotton fibers isolated from