A&M researcher creates edible cottonseed, a protein-packed treat.


You’ve worn it. You’ve slept on it. You’ve bandaged yourself with it. But have you ever eaten it?

Cotton plants produce 1.6 pounds of protein-packed seeds with every pound of lint. But until now, cottonseed always contained high levels of gossypol, a toxin that protects the plants from pests and disease -- and kept cottonseed off our dinner plates. The chemical is poisonous to humans and animals except cattle, which can gradually inactivate gossypol in their four-part stomachs.

Dr. Keerti Rathore and his Texas A&M research team might have unlocked the secrets to a bountiful crop of cotton with edible seeds. "The results look very promising," said Rathore, associate professor of plant genomics and biotechnology. Rathore and his team silenced the gossypol gene only in the seeds, which hold great potential as a food source that could save lives in developing countries battling malnutrition.


"We analyzed the plant leaves, flower organs and seeds of the first genetically modified cotton plants grown under normal farm conditions," Rathore said. (Researchers also have grown five generations of the special cotton in an A&M greenhouse.) "The levels of gossypol and related defense chemicals are similar to that of regular cotton plants in the buds, leaves and flowers, but the seeds show the ultra-low levels of gossypol that should allow safe consumption by humans and all animals."

To learn how you can support research and academics in Texas A&M’s College of Agriculture and Life Sciences, contact Monica Delisa at (800) 392-3310.