Ultrastructural and Chemical Evidence That the Cell Wall of Green Cotton Fiber Is Suberized

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Abstract
Green cotton (Gossypium hirsutum L.) fibers were shown by electron microscopy to have numerous thin concentric rings around the lumen of the cell. These rings possessed a lamellar fine structure characteristic of suberin. LiA1D4 depolymerization and gas chromatography-mass spectrometry analysis showed the presence of a suberin polymer in the green cotton with the major aliphatic monomers being ω-hydroxydocosanoic acid (70%) and docosanedoic acid (25%). Ordinary white cotton was shown by chemical and ultrastructural examination to be encircled by a thin cuticular polymer containing less than 0.5% of the aliphatic components found in green cotton.