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Title: GLYPHOSATE TOLERANT COTTON: THE COMPOSITION OF THE COTTONSEED IS EQUIVALENT TO CONVENTIONAL COTTONSEED

Author
item NIDA, DEBBIE - MONSANTO COMPANY
item PATZER, SHARI - HAZLETON LABORATORIES
item Stipanovic, Robert - Bob
item HARVEY, PATRICIA - TEXAS A&M UNIVERSITY
item WOOD, RANDALL - TEXAS A&M UNIVERSITY
item FUCHS, ROY - MONSANTO COMPANY

Submitted to: Journal of Agricultural and Food Chemistry
Publication Type: Peer Reviewed Journal
Publication Acceptance Date: 1/26/1996
Publication Date: N/A
Citation: N/A

Interpretive Summary: The utilization of genetically-modified crops requires an assessment of the safety of the product composition, including nutrients and antinutrients. For cotton, this requires analysis of the cottonseed and its oil. The composition of the cottonseed and oil from two herbicide tolerant lines were compared to the parental variety and other commercial cotton varieties. Analysis demonstrated that the herbicide tolerant lines are compositionally equivalent in nutrients including: protein, fat, fiber (linters), carbohydrate, calories, moisture, ash, amino acids, fatty acids, and in antinutrients: gossypol and cyclopropenoid fatty acids. Thus, these herbicide-tolerant lines are as safe and nutritious as the parental and conventional cotton varieties.

Technical Abstract: An important aspect of the safety assessment of genetically-modified crops to be used for human food and animal feed is the product composition, including nutrients and antinutrients. Cotton lines have been developed that are tolerant to glyphosate, the active ingredient in the herbicide Roundup. The glyphosate-tolerant lines were generated by the addition of a glyphosate tolerance gene to a common variety of cotton. The glyphosate tolerance gene encodes for a 5-enolpyruvylshikimate-3-phosphate synthase (EPSPS) from an Agrobacterium sp. strain CP4 (CP4 EPSPS). The composition of the cottonseed and oil from two glyphosate tolerant lines (GTCot), 1445 and 1698, has been compared to the parental variety Coker 312 and to published values for other commercial cotton varieties. The nutrients measured in the cottonseed were protein, fat, fiber, carbohydrate, calories, moisture, ash, amino acids and fatty acids. The antinutrient measured in the cottonseed included gossypol, cyclopropenoid fatty acids, and aflatoxin. In addition, the fatty acid profile and alpha tocopherol levels were measured in the refined oil. These analyses demonstrated that the glyphosate- tolerant cotton lines are compositionally equivalent and are as safe and nutritious as the parental and conventional cotton varieties commercially available.