Cotton is the world’s most important fiber crop, and naturally colored cotton (NCC) is an important kind of environmental friendly material. The NCC described here refers to that the cotton fiber itself can synthesize pigments and present colors. NCC has gone through domestication and traditional breeding era in history. Due to the bottlenecks faced by NCC such as low fiber yield, poor quality, narrow color spectrum and unstable color, coupled with the advent of the industrialization era, the practical application of NCC has entered into a trough period. However, NCC has the advantages of environmentally friendly, antimicrobial and flame retardant, and researchers gradually resume the study of colored cotton from the breeding and physiological and biochemical perspectives. Especially with the arrival of the era of cotton functional genome, important research progresses have been made in the genetic study and genetic engineering of NCC. This study was focused on the metabolic pathways, genetic regulatory models and research highlights of NCC, which will provide new ideas for molecular design breeding of NCC, and realize the creation of high-yield, fine-quality and color-diverse NCC.

中文翻译：

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天然彩色棉育种和研究的进展和新见解

棉花是世界上最重要的纤维作物，天然彩棉（NCC）是一种重要的环保材料。这里所说的NCC是指棉纤维本身可以合成颜料并呈现颜色。NCC在历史上经历了驯化和传统饲养时代。由于NCC面临纤维产量低、质量差、色谱窄、颜色不稳定等瓶颈，加之工业化时代的到来，NCC的实际应用进入了低谷期。但NCC具有环保、抗菌、阻燃等优点，研究人员逐渐从育种和生理生化角度恢复对彩色棉的研究。特别是随着棉花功能基因组时代的到来，NCC的遗传研究和基因工程取得了重要的研究进展。本研究围绕NCC的代谢途径、遗传调控模型及研究亮点进行研究，将为NCC的分子设计育种提供新思路，实现高产、优质、花色多样的NCC创制。