As a plant molecular biologist, Roisin McGarry's work is far from the fashion runway, but in the future, it still could have a very real impact for a prime textile used to construct many of the world's garments. Her research, which has been funded by the U.S. Department of Agriculture and Cotton Inc. among others, focuses on the architecture of the cotton plant. She's part of an interdisciplinary team of researchers in UNT's BioDiscovery Institute, which was established in 2016 to develop innovative solutions to create a sustainable bio-based economy. Cotton is a textile most prominently used for clothing, but it's also a component for making currency, floor coverings, building insulation, medical supplies, various beauty products and other items.
"It permeates so many facets of our lives, yet we haven't seen much study on cotton's genetics," McGarry says.
The absence of previous research has required McGarry to invent her own genetic tools for working with the plant.
She specifically looks at ways the cotton plant's genes can be manipulated to impact the structure of the plant, making it grow more efficiently using less of Earth's precious space and water resources.
"I investigate the growth regulation of the plant, looking at things such as flowering time, arrangement of branches on a plant, as well as the size of the bolls it produces," McGarry says. "The goal with my research is to find ways to increase the yield of cotton fiber from the plant."
As fashion designers turn to using more natural fibers for their collections, the demand for textiles like cotton will grow, McGarry says.
"And as we increase the yield of cotton, we want to make sure its fibers still have a high quality," she says. "Those attributes don't happen during processing or after harvesting. They happen on the plant itself and are determined by how the plant grows. That's why my work on the biological and agricultural side of things is fundamentally important to solving sustainability challenges."
Read the full article at The North Texan