Eating Cotton

Sounds delicious, eh? Bet you can not wait to do something. I'm sure you've all eagerly awaited the day when \' cottonmouth \' phrase could be more than one analogy.Yet more than 1 billion people are undernourished in the world, the idea of eating the cotton may be the good news involving the invention of cotton candy floss. You see, cotton happens also to be a rich source of protein, and the current cotton crop would yield enough seed to meet daily protein requirements for half a billion people ... if only it could be the problem was always that edible.The seeds also contain a toxic chemical called \' gossypol, which must be eliminated through an extensive refining process to make cotton edible for humans. This chemical agent can not be stomached people and most animals, but that's kind of a point. Gossypol is crucial to protect plants from pests that would otherwise devour before any crops could be harvested. When scientists genetically engineer a crop without it, the plant
has no chance in the field, which has always prevented the cultivation of cotton seed for food.Now happy news: Keerti Rathore, a professor at Texas A \\ u0026amp; M University , recently discovered a way to circumvent this problem through genetic engineering. Discovery uses a process that turns off genes that produce only gossypol in cotton plants while the rest continue to produce chemicals as a defense against pests. Field trial data released in the second half of 2009 show that the process seems to be a success, seems to be reasonably modified cotton in any other way except that it contains edible seeds.But how it tastes? Aroma was compared with chickpeas. Seeds will probably see the first use as a feed supplement, but this would free up further on other cereals for food supply and increasing global food production. They'll need FDA approval also before making their way to people's dinner tables. We try to keep you informed, but if this works, could be a major breakthrou
gh in the production of food for a hungry world. Given how dire food shortage are expected to become in the near future is a welcome fact revelation.Other quickly: * Approximately 44 million tons of cottonseed is produced annually .* * 23% of cotton protein plant has been grown for fiber for more than 7,000 years. Today is increased by more than 20 million farmers in 80 countries .* some cotton accounts for almost 40% of worldwide fiber used to make clothing .* Scientists used a new technique called RNA interference (RNA site is similar to DNA but regulates chemical signatures, as opposed to protein) to construct a genetic sequence that blocked the enzyme only seed gossypol.