AgbioInvestor’s free-to-access service AgbioInvestor GM Monitor has identified the following GM trait approvals up to July 2023. Expanded details on these recently approved traits, as well as for approvals dating back as far as 1992, can be found on AgbioInvestor’s GM Monitor website.

BASF’s GHB811 x LLCotton25 cotton, which utilises the genetic events GHB811 (BCS-GHB811-4) and LLCotton25 (ACS-GHØØ1-3), has received import approval in Brazil after the trait received cultivation approval in May 2023, earlier this year.

Both GHB811 and LLCotton25 cotton were developed by agrobacterium tumefaciens mediated transformation, through which a segment of T-DNA, containing the desired genetic information, is transferred into host cells. Successful genetic transformation is then screened for, often through the use of marker genes to demonstrate the proper insertion of the DNA transcript. Both GHB811 and LLCotton25 cotton events that had previously received individual cultivation approval in the country.

GHB811 x LLCotton25 utilises three genes to provide three forms of herbicide tolerance (HT). The GHB811 event is responsible for the 2mepsps and hppdPfW336-1Pa genes, introducing glyphosate and HPPD (isoxaflutole) tolerance respectively, whilst the LLCotton25 event introduces glufosinate tolerance to the plant through the bar gene. The bar gene encodes the phosphinothricin N-acetyltransferase (PAT) protein which inactivates glufosinate herbicides, before they accumulate to toxic levels within the plant, providing HT. The 2mepsps gene encodes the 2mEPSPS protein which similarly allows tolerance to glyphosate and the hppdPfW336-1Pa gene encodes the HPPD W336 protein and provides tolerance to the HPPD-inhibiting herbicide isoxaflutole.

LLCotton25 was developed in 1995 by DeKalb and has cultivation approval in 5 countries and food/feed use approval in 15 countries. GHB811 was originally developed by Bayer who’s, crop science business was later acquired by BASF, and received its first import and cultivation approvals in 2018. GHB811 has been authorised for cultivation in 6 countries and food/feed use in 11.

As of the time of publication, GHB811 x LLCotton25 cotton has received both cultivation and import approval in Brazil and has one additional import approval in Singapore, where it was authorised for food/feed use in November 2022, allowing it to be imported into the country but not cultivated.

Another GM cotton variety of interest that contains the GHB811 and LLCotton25 events is GHB811 x LLCotton25 x MON 88701. This variety, also developed by BASF, adds a fourth kind of herbicide tolerance through the addition of the MON 88701 Event which encodes both a bar and a DMO gene, conferring glufosinate and dicamba tolerance to the cotton respectively. This particular variety has yet to receive cultivation approval, so far only being approved for import in South Korea, Singapore and Taiwan (2022, 2022 and 2023 respectively).

In Brazil, GM cotton has been granted cultivation approval for 12 separate HT events. Of these 12 events there are 10 different traits, the most common of which is glufosinate tolerance (bar, pat), followed by glyphosate tolerance (2mepsps and CP4 epsps), which are present in 6 of 12 and 8 of 12 of the total events respectively. The first HT cotton was approved in Brazil in 2008, LLCotton25 cotton, with Monsanto and Bayer tied for owning the greatest number of HT varieties, at four each. Some of the named brands that have been approved include Roundup Ready, LibertyLink and GlyTol varieties.