AgbioInvestor’s free-to-access service AgbioInvestor GM Monitor has identified the following GM trait approvals up to May 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 cultivation approval in Brazil, a combination of two events that had both previously received cultivation approval in the country.

Both GHB811 and LLCotton25 cotton was 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.

GHB811 x LLCotton25 utilises three genes to provide three forms of herbicide tolerance. 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 herbicide tolerance. 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, whose 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 only received one other approval, in Singapore, which authorised it for food/feed use in November 2022, allowing it to be imported into the country but not cultivated. With this latest approval, Brazil now has a total of 25 GM cotton varieties approved for cultivation use in the country but has no instances of GM cotton being approved for import.