Spectroscopic characterization of genetically modified flax fibers

• The content of bio-chemicals in GM and natural flax fibers has been compared.
• FT-IR spectra of fibers have been reported and analyzed.
• XRD studies have been used to characterize the cellulose fibers.

The principal goal of this paper is an analysis of flax fiber composition. Natural and genetically modified flax fibers derived from transgenic flax have been analyzed. Development of genetic engineering enables to improve the quality of fibers. Three transgenic plant lines with different modifications were generated based on fibrous flax plants as the origin. These are plants with: silenced cinnamyl alcohol dehydrogenase (CAD) gene; overexpression of polygalacturonase (PGI); and expression of three genes construct containing β-ketothiolase (phb A), acetoacetyl-CoA reductase (phb B), and poly-3-hydroxybutyric acid synthase (phb C). Flax fibers have been studied by FT-IR spectroscopy. The integral intensities of the IR bands have been used for estimation of the chemical content of the normal and transgenic flaxes. The spectroscopic data were compared to those obtained from chemical analysis of flax fibers. X-ray studies have been used to characterize the changes of the crystalline structure of the flax cellulose fibers.

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