The composition of insect-protected cottonseed is equivalent to that of conventional cottonseed

Cotton plants have been developed that control the major lepidopteran insect pests of cotton by the stable introduction of a gene encoding an insecticidal protein from Bacillus thuringiensis subsp. kurstaki. These plants provide season-long protection against cotton bollworm, tobacco budworm, and pink bollworm. An important component of the safety and product assessment of these lines was the comparison of the nutrient and antinutrient levels in the seed both to the parental variety and to published values for other commercial cotton varieties. Compositional equivalence confirms the appropriateness of these cotton lines for use in food and feed products. The insect-protected lines and the parental control were shown to contain levels of nutrients comparable to those of other commercial varieties. Nutrients included protein, fat, carbohydrate, moisture, ash, amino acids, and fatty acids. The levels of the antinutrients gossypol, cyclopropenoid fatty acids, and aflatoxin in the seed from the insect-protected lines were similar to or lower than the levels present in the parental variety and reported for other commercial varieties. These analyses demonstrate that seed from the insect-protected cotton lines is compositionally equivalent to and as nutritious as seed from the parental and other commercial cotton varieties.