棉籽是人类重要的植物蛋白和油料来源，但由于其含有对人和单胃动物有毒的棉酚腺体，大大妨碍了棉籽饼和棉籽油的放心食用。另一方面，棉酚在棉花中起着抗病虫的作用。消除棉籽中的有毒棉酚、同时提高棉花植株的抗病虫性是棉花品种改良长期未解决的课题。gl1基因可以使茎秆、叶柄和铃壳无腺体，而其他组织有腺体。该基因及其表达调控方式对于控制腺体仅在种子等特定组织中产生具有重要意义。项目组前期将gl1基因定位在棉花第8号染色体的350kb区间内，并通过近等基因系的转录组差异表达分析，将其锁定在267个基因内。在此基础上，本项目拟利用棉花基因组中该区间的序列开发新的分子标记，对gl1基因进行精细定位，并结合gl1材料与8个有腺体材料转录组的共同差异基因，分离克隆该候选基因，再构建载体通过转基因技术进行互补功能验证。本研究对于揭示棉酚腺体形成的分子调控机制具有重要意义，同时为棉花低酚育种提供重要的理论依据。

Cottonseed is an important source of protein and oil in plants. However, the presence of gossypol glands limits the usage of this large amount of nutrient-rich resources. The glands contain plenty of gossypol and related terpenoids, which are toxic to human beings and monogastric animals. On the other hand, gossypol can act as phytoalexin to provide constitutive and inducible resistance against a variety of pests and diseases. Therefore, developing cotton varieties with low gossypol seeds and high gossypol plant is regarded as an important direction of cotton breeding. The gene gl1 could make cotton stem, petiole and boll glandless, but other tissues such as the leaves glanded. The gene and its pattern of gene regulation in space provided an important reference for the study of how to produce cottons with low gossypol seeds and high gossypol plant. We have located gl1 gene to in a 350kb interval of chromosome 8 before, and through transcriptional analysis of near-isogenic lines gl1 gene was locked among 267 genes. On this basis, the project team intends to develop new molecular markers in the interval according to the cotton genome sequences newly obtained, fine map gl1 gene combining another 2 F2 populations which contains about 5,000 individuals, and clone this candidate gene combining common differently expressed genes among T582 and 8 lines which have glands, further identify the function of gl1 gene through transgenic technology. This study aims to reveal the molecular mechanism of the formation of the gland, and provide a theoretical basis for the low-gossypol cotton breeding.