Question

explain the applications of biotechnology in producing Bt cotton.

Answer 1

  Bt toxin is produced by a bacterium and expressed in plants to provide resistance to insects, in effect created a biopesticide, e.g. Bt cotton, Bt corn, golden rice, tomato, potato and soybean, etc. Bt cotton is created by using some strains of a bacterium, Bacillus thuringiensis (Bt is short form,).

Answer 2

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Here is your answer -

This is a genetically modified version of cotton. ‘Bt’ stands for the microbe Bacillus thuringiensis. This microbe produces an insecticidal protein or toxin that kills other insects such as tobacco budworm, flies, mosquitoes, beetles etc. Why is this protein not toxic to the Bacillus itself?

This is because it stays inactive (as protoxin) in the Bacillus. It gets activated only once it comes in contact with the alkaline pH in the insect gut when the insect ingests it. The activated toxin then binds to the surface of epithelial cells and creates pores in it. This causes the cells to swell and lyse, eventually leading to the death of the insect.

Scientists isolated the Bt toxin genes from Bacillus thuringiensis and incorporated it into various crop plants such as cotton. This variety is ‘Bt cotton’. Since most Bt toxins are insect-group specific, the choice of genes to be incorporated depends on the crop and the targeted pest. A gene named cry codes for the toxin protein and there a number of these genes. For example, the genes cryIAc and cryIIAb encode toxins that control cotton bollworms whereas the gene cryIAb controls the insect ‘corn borer’.