Transgenic Cotton: An Overview

The first transgenic cotton having insect or herbicide resistance was released to the field in 1996 in the United States. Since then the rapid increase in transgenic cotton acreage within 10 years attests to the overall success of agricultural biotechnology. This review article provides an overview of genetically modified cotton and its application in agricultural production. We first critically review cotton tissue culture as the basic work of biotechnology. Then, three main transformation methods, namely, Agrobacterium-meditated, particle bombardment and pollen tube-pathway are described in this paper. The performance of transgenic cotton plants engineered for insect, disease, herbicide resistance and fibre improvement is reviewed from a perspective of the benefits and limitations. Finally, recent progress in plastid engineering research of cotton is briefly mentioned. Cotton genetic engineering shows great potential to enhance breeding programs by introducing novel traits that have eluded more traditional plant improvement methods and therefore will likely play an increasingly important role in the genetic improvement of cotton in the future. _____________________________________________________________________________________________________________