Abstract:
Manipulation of different genes in crop plants to g
et desirable characters has become
an important tool of plant biotechnology. In the cu
rrent study, cotton variety MNH-786
was modified for its characteristics to show resist
ance against lepidopteran insects and
herbicide by transformation of
Cry1Ac+Cry2A
and
GTGene
cloned in a different cassette
under 35S Promoter. Mature embryos of cotton MNH-78
6 were injured by a sharp blade
at the shoot apex and infected with the
Agrobacterim tumefaciens
harboring transgene
constructs. Transformed cotton plants were successf
ully acclimatized in pots and later the
green house. Gene specific PCR and ELISA confirmed
the transgene presence and its
protein expression which was considerably higher in
transformed plants. Overall
transformation efficiency was 1.05%. All larvae of
Helicoverpa armigera
feeding on
transgenic cotton leaves of
T
0
were found dead as compared to the control ones fe
eding on
leaves from non-transgenic cotton. Transgenic plant
s also survived a glyphosate spray
dose of 1,900 ml acre
-1
as compared to herbs/weeds growing along with them
, which
burned completely five days post glyphosate applica
tion.
Keywords:
Bt cotton, Glyphosate, Transgenic, Weedicide resis
tance.
