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Us Develops Edible Pgenic Cottonseed

2010/6/30 16:49:00 39

According to the British

the Daily Telegraph

In recent days, researchers in Texas have used RNA interference technology to reduce the content of toxic Cotton Gossypium in cottonseed, so that cottonseed can be used for human consumption to supplement human protein.

Cottonseed is rich in protein, but its toxic substance, cottonseed phenol, reduces the potassium content in human blood to dangerous levels, thereby damaging human liver and heart.

Generally speaking, only cattle and other livestock can not be harbored by the content of HM seed phenol in cottonseed because cattle have four stomachs and can be decomposed.

In the 50s of last century, scientists first obtained cotton seed gossypol free cotton by shutting down the gene producing gossypol.

cottonseed

Phenol has the ability to fight pests and diseases, so the cotton seeds that remove gossypol are attacked by pests and diseases.

Now,

Texas Agriculture and Mechanic University

The research team led by Coriti Russo, a molecular biologist, used RNA interference technology to develop cotton varieties which could reduce the content of gossypol but not yield.

Field experiments showed that the yield of cotton was very stable.

Moreover, the newly obtained cottonseed cottonseed phenol content is also within safety level, can be eaten by people and livestock, and is expected to appear in bread, biscuits and other foods within ten years to increase the protein content of these foods.

Russell said that the new pgenic cotton varieties can be used as a source of human food, which is very useful for developing countries.

In addition, cotton farmers can also benefit from selling cotton fibers to textile merchants.

Judy Scheffler, a geneticist from the Department of cotton genetics and conservation of the US Department of agriculture, said that for the GM cotton, there are many safety tests and the corresponding regulatory code, but they are optimistic about the prospects of this technology.

Russell believes that it is unlikely that the pgenic cottonseed will be rejected because their technology is to shut down a chemical process instead of adding a chemical process.