CUTLURES

THE GENETIC ENGINEERING OF COTTON PROVIDES AN OUTSTANDING OPPORTUNITY FOR THE IMPROVEMENT OF THIS CROP. THE PRIMARY PROBLEM IN DEVELOPING A USEFUL GENE TRANSFER SYSTEM FOR COTTON HAS BEEN THE DIFFICULTY IN PLANT REGENERATION. HOWEVER, RESEARCHERS AT PLANT GENETICS, INC.,HAVE RECENTLY DEVELOPED A COTTON EMBRYO-FORMING SYSTEM THAT ALLOWS HIGH FREQUENCY PLANT REGENERATION WITH MINIMAL SOMACLONAL VARIATION. IN THIS PROPOSAL WE DESCRIBE EXPERIMENTS THAT CAN RESULT IN EFFICIENT GENE TRANSFER INTO REGENERABLE COTTON EMBRYOS. AGROBACTERIUM-MEDIATED DNATRANSFER WILL BE PERFORMED USING THREE MEASURES OF FOREIGN GENE EXPRESSION; HORMONE INDEPENDENT GROWTH, KANR DUE TO THEEXPRESSION OF A CHIMERIC GENE CONSTRUCTION, AND S-(2-AMINOETHYL)-L-CYSTEINE RESISTANCE DUE TO EXPRESSION OF THE OCTOPINE SYNTHASE GENE.