Fibre Fineness of olitorius Jute: Morphological, Histochemical, Biochemical and molecular perspective

Though, lignocellulosic bast fibre of jute (genus- Corchorus ) is ranked as the world’s second most important fibre crop after cotton, higher lignin and lower cellulose content cause it to lose quality which requires improvement. The genes associated with fibre quality were reportedly discovered in lignin and cellulose biosynthetic pathways. The objective of this study was to clarify the function of the genes and/ enzymes involved in lignin and cellulose pathway in olitorius jute. Two popular olitorius jute varieties (JRO-524 and JBO-1) were selected to compare their yield and quality performances, biochemical and histochemical parameters, gene sequencing and expression studies. Variations were found in fibre yield parameters. The fine-JBO-1 fibre had more bundle strength than course-JRO-524. In the JBO-1 bark tissue, acid-detergent-lignin-content, lignin-biosynthetic enzyme- PAL and CAD activities were significantly reduced compared to JRO-524 at 30-Days-after-germination(DAG) and 60-DAG, while cellulose content of JBO-1 was significantly elevated than JRO-524 at 60-DAG. Histochemical analysis revealed higher lignified fibre-cell-bundles of JRO-524. Partial CDS of monolignol-F5H gene of two varieties were sequenced. By qRT-PCR data analysis, it was found that in the JBO-1 bark tissue, monolignol-C3H gene exhibited significantly under-expression at both 30-DAG and 60-DAG whereas monolignol-F5H and cellulose-biosynthetic-gene-CES displayed significant over-expression at 30-DAG and under-expression at 60-DAG compared to JRO-524. Current research indicated that jute's fine fibre is attributed with greater bundle strength, reduced lignin content, decreased lignin-biosynthetic enzymes activity, higher cellulose content, lower C3H gene expression at both 30 and 60-DAG, reduced F5H expression at 60-DAG and increased Ces expression at 30-DAG.