Value-Added Products from Cottonseed

The principal goal of the project is to improve the postharvest utilization of cottonseed thereby increasing value of U.S. cotton crop. This will be achieved by developing an improved understanding of cottonseed¿s oil, protein, and gossypol components. The objectives of the project are: (1) To survey available accessions from the Genetic Resources Information Network (GRIN) cotton database for genotypes modified fatty acid profiles. (2) To prepare a series of gossypol derivatives and study their bioactivity. (3) To develop improved chromatographic methods for measuring low levels of gossypol. (4) To study the potential use of cottonseed protein in adhesive formulations. (5) To modify cottonseed oil hydrogenation processes to reduce levels of trans fatty acids. (6) Use model plant systems to identify and refine transgenic expression conditions for critical industrial oil biosynthetic genes. (7) Identify substrate specificity-determining sequences in pertinent genes from tung tree related species. (8) Transfer knowledge of minimal necessary gene sets from current research (on tung tree genes) to other novel oilseed whose oil represents greater market size or strategic value; i.e., epoxy (from Crepis, Vernonia, and Euphorbia species) or acetylenic fatty acids (also from Crepis).