Ultra-Low Gossypol Cottonseed Takes Next Step Toward Humanitarian Use

By Kay Ledbetter

Texas A&M AgriLife Research has reached a major milestone in increasing the value of cotton, marking the initial step toward commercial adoption of food-ingredient cottonseed. This innovative development was led by Keerti Rathore, Ph.D., AgriLife Research plant biotechnologist in the Texas A&M Department of Soil and Crop Sciences.

With foundational research support and regulatory funding provided by Cotton Incorporated, Rathore has spent more than 30 years improving the value of cotton, going beyond the growers’ focus on the fiber and concentrating on the value-added use for the seed, which has a high protein and oil content. Cotton plants produce 1.6 times more seed than fiber by weight.

Rathore’s development of ultra-low gossypol cottonseed trait has opened the market to expand beyond the historically restricted market of dairy cows to feed poultry, swine and aquaculture species in addition to direct use as a protein source for human consumption.

To further advance adoption and demonstrate the global humanitarian potential of ultra-low gossypol cottonseed, AgriLife Research and Cotton Incorporated collaborated to make the trait available for noncommercial use a few years ago.

As a result of these efforts, Uzbekistan has become the first country to formalize a partnership with The Texas A&M University System through Texas A&M Innovation. The agreement, facilitated by Uzbekistan’s Center of Genomics and Bioinformatics of the Academy of Sciences, will support the incorporation of the trait into cotton varieties adapted for Uzbekistan, in alignment with the nation’s food security objectives.

In addition to validating this trait, U.S. cotton growers may see future benefits as germplasm and future biotech traits are shared back with AgriLife Research following Uzbekistan’s adoption of ultra-low gossypol cottonseed.

Making cottonseed edible

The cotton plant produces more seeds by weight than fiber. However, gossypol, a naturally occurring toxic compound that deters insects, is present throughout the cotton plant, including the seeds. The gossypol prevents their use as food or feed for nonruminant animals. To date, the dairy industry’s use of cottonseed as a feed has made it the No. 1 consumer of U.S. cottonseed.

Rathore’s ultra-low gossypol cottonseed, TAM 66274, partially funded by U.S. cotton growers through Cotton Incorporated, was approved for field planting and food and feed consumption by the U.S. Department of Agriculture in 2018 and U.S. Food and Drug Administration in 2019.