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Us Approves New Genetically Modified Cotton As Raw Material For Food

2019/10/15 10:40:00 0

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Genetically Modified Cotton Food Raw Materials

The United States Food and drug administration has approved the use of a variety of genetically modified cotton as food material for humans and other animals, laying the foundation for the development of new protein foods using transgenic cotton seeds.

According to Reuters, the approved TAM66274 transgenic cotton crop was developed by the Agricultural Life Sciences Research Institute of Texas Agricultural and Mechanical University, Texas. Researchers say this edible transgenic cotton seed has a similar taste to chickpeas, helping to solve the malnutrition problem facing the world.

Corti Rassul, a biotechnology expert at the agricultural and Life Sciences Research Institute of Texas Agricultural and Mechanical University, said scientists are working with relevant companies to discuss the feasibility of the transgenic cotton entering the commercialized market in five years. Researchers are also pushing the GM crop to be approved early in Mexico and other countries.

Cotton is widely grown in more than 80 countries and regions around the world. Cotton fiber is used for textile. Cotton seeds can be used as feedstuff to feed cattle and sheep. However, ordinary cottonseed contains high concentration of toxic chemical cottonseed phenol, which is not suitable for humans and most animals to eat.

Rassul's team, through the RNA interference technology, kept the gene "silent", eliminated the cottonseed phenol composition in cotton seeds, and retained the cottonseed phenol content in other parts of the plant, because this component helps to resist diseases and insect pests. Researchers say the technology will not damage the function of cotton fiber as a fabric.

Rassul said that transgenic cotton seeds will be used as pigs, poultry and aquatic feed in the future to help alleviate hunger and malnutrition in some Asian and African countries.

The report of the international biotechnology biotechnology / transgenic crops commercialization development in 2018 released by the international agricultural biotechnology application service organization showed that in 2018, the area of GM crops has exceeded 190 million hectares. Among them, the planting area of transgenic cotton reached 24 million 900 thousand hectares.